Harry Potter and the Quidditch Adoption
by Madhatter1981
Summary: Concerned about Harry and wishing to protect him from enemies he may not know he has the Gryffindor quidditch teams puts in to play a plan that ends up changing an number of peoples plans. With a revamped and fixed first chapter.
1. Coming up With the Plan

**Harry Potter and the Quidditch Adoption**

**Disclaimer: Don't own this, nor do I get any compensation from it. Just for fun.**

**Chapter 1**

Fred Weasley was walking back from buying his round of the quidditch team's multiple orders of butterbeer that they consume at the Three Broomsticks. It was always the same; the quidditch team, usually during the practice the members of the team that were able to go to Hogsmeade would get together after they finished in the locker rooms and plan when they would get together, usually at lunch. During that lunch, copious amounts of butterbeers were drunk, firewiskey as well, if Fred and George's contact, Mundungus, had come through. This week it was just butterbeer for the lads and ladies of the Gryffindor quidditch team. As Fred approached the table they were all using, his ears picked up an interesting comment coming from the chaser line.

Angelina Johnson, as well as being Oliver Wood's right hand witch when it came to the Gryffindor quidditch team, was; being groomed by Ollie to take over after he graduated from Hogwarts, Angelina was able to voice complaints that might not be taken as well if voice directly to the over exuberant quidditch fanatic in response to the other responsibilities that a Hogwarts student might find themselves beholden to. This being the case she had an even better eye than McGonagall and Pomfrey when it came to the emotional well being of the Gryffindor team.

McGonagall was a good sponsor, but spent too much time involved in her rivalry with Snape and the Slytherins, not to mention her duties as Deputy Head of Hogwarts, to really spend the hands on time necessary to be a proper sponsor of any after curricular type of group. Also, if Fred and George are to be believed, when Harry had gone to McGonagall before about what he thought was wrong at Hogwarts during his first year she'd given him a very curt and rather perfunctory brush off.

While Angelina found this rather strange given what Harry, Hermione and Ron had testified to in the common room after they'd won Gryffindor the point that had put them over the Slytherins in her third year at Hogwarts, she didn't know what if anything McGonagall might have been trying to do behind the scene to try to rectify the situation that the Gryffindor three had found themselves in and was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. However she had begun to wonder if she was correct with regards to what had happened to Harry in the intervening year, that being said, she opened up her mouth and began to speak.

"What should we do to help Harry?" Seeing the confused looks on the faces around her Angelina explained, "Just by going with what Fred and George have told us of what they know of Harry's home life", she paused as she watched her teammates all look as though they wished to use the killing curse for the first time, regardless of what the penalties were for it. Admittedly none of them had believed what the twin beaters had said about Harry's home life until the Twins, looking sincerely angry that no one was taking them seriously, called for an elf to get a pensive in which to put their memories of the "jailbreak" of Harry from his relatives. The enraged team for who the only reason the Dursley's were still alive was due to the fact that none of them where convinced the Knight Bus would go to a muggle location, thought of how to help their seeker.

"As I was saying just by what we know of Harry's home life he's treated worse then some of the darkest families treat their house elves. So, given that he's our seeker and to a certain extent our little brother; how are we going to help Harry?" Angelina sat back with her arms crossed over her chest with a challenging stare in her eyes as she looked at the rest of her team, a team that was shocked by what was said. While they did think of each other as a loosely formed family, just the fact that they had real biological parents and in some cases siblings, led them to overlook the fact that the most well known member of their team was basically on his own. Thinking about it now, on top of the fact that according to Harry's best friend Hermione, Harry was getting into trouble again by being sent a top-of-the-line racing broom by an unknown benefactor, possibly Sirus Black, led to a hard look in the eyes of the Gryffindor quidditch team as they bowed their heads together to start planning.

Not knowing that what the amateur quidditch players were deciding would cause a number of plans to go haywire, while not impacting him that much, Harry got slightly nervous when he felt the hairs rise on the back of his neck. He shrugged it off thinking that it was just paranoia over worrying about Sirus Black.

The next day Harry woke up and got ready for his day. He was thinking about working on his homework while Ron and Hermione went to visit Hogmeade; even if he didn't mind using the tunnels to get to the town one day of the weekend he felt that not being around Hogwart both days that he was supposed to be castle bound, was just asking for trouble. He could just imagine Snape lurking around trying to find him to get him into trouble. Given what happened yesterday with the cloak slipping, Harry didn't want to tempt fate. Unbeknownst to him trouble was brewing without any help.

Pranksters though they were, Fred and George were known to be serious when the situation called for it. The problem being that the twins and most figures of authority had vastly different ideas of when the situation called for being serious. Their head of house, mum, and prefect brother seemed to be under the opinion that everyone should be serious all the time; where as Fred and George thought that it was necessary to be serious only at life or death situations, depending even then.

Looking over at the table they had been residing at before they got up to buy their rounds of butterbeers, they were unable to meet up with their firewiskey wholesaler and had to drink the student drink instead. Not that they minded butterbeers, it was just after Charlie came home from his seventh year of Hogwarts to clear out his room and say goodbye to his family/got into an argument with mum over being a dragon handler, he had slipped a bottle of Ogden's Old in his bag to bring home with him.

After Arthur and Molly had gone to bed, Charlie had called the twins to his room and after they entered it had put up a silencing spell/fireproofing ward that he had learned in his efforts to become a dragon handler/beast master. The silencing spell that Charlie had used was more of a silencing ward in its construction, but all three boys were glad it had been put up. Upon taking their first drink of firewiskey, to Charlie's amused retelling to Bill later by post, Fred and George resembled a dragon with how they spewed fire after their first taste of the brew.

Infrequent sampling of firewiskey away from the parents and siblings helped the twins build up a tolerance. Fred and George were proud of their two eldest brothers who had shown them the way to be happy: find something you love to do and don't let anyone tell you any different no matter who they are. Some would say that this differs from what seemed to be the unspoken motto of the Weasley's family before everyone else, Fred and George blamed their mollycoddling mother for this view. Not that they would ever phrase it that way; they liked the limited amount of freedom they had at home, thank you very much.

It was partly for that reason that they had taken to pranking. Their mother; in her fear and need to keep her family as safe as she could was constricting them, and they were chafing against that constriction. Due to their age, they never gave pause to think about the fact that their mother lost both her brothers in the last war against Voldemort, brothers that her twin sons with their laughter and anything goes spirit were a constant reminder of. The only thing the twins saw was their mother trying to keep them as children, propelling them towards an unhappy adulthood working for the stodgy ministry. Fred and George couldn't believe that she could still use the same argument given how the ministry-appointed Dementors had affected Harry.

Although it could be said that Molly was using the "better the devil you know than the devil you don't" argument in regards to her children's careers, except for the fact that she truly believed in the ministry and was blind to any and all corruption using the excuse that it wasn't actually true and if it did happen then it happened much less then it was purported to be happening.

The twins were brought out of their musings by the voices of the chaser line as they approached their table. Given their attractions to Angelina Johnson (Fred) and Katie Bell (George), the twins were always pulled out of their musings by the lyrical voices of their Quidditch team mates, two of them at least, something that greatly annoyed Lee when the three of them were planning a prank. While what this meeting caused to happen could be considered a prank, it wasn't one in the traditional sense. It had far reaching consequence that reverberated through the wizarding world for years to come.

"Can't believe after everything Harry has gone through with You-Know-Who he now has to deal with a demented follower of his after him too." Katie commented. The twins snorted, causing the Chaser line to glare at the two beaters. Seeing the looks directed at them, the twins were quick to explain. Hashing out what they learned from Ron last summer about what Harry went through to rescue Ginny, not to mention the manner that they had to acquire Harry the summer before the lad's second year. The look on the Chaser line, after the twins' explanation was finished, made the twins and Lee hopeful that they would never have it directed at them.

"Let my get this straight", Angelina growled after a few moments where the members at the table who didn't know digested what Fred and George had just divulged, "For the last two years Harry, along with your youngest brother, and Hermione have somehow got themselves into situations that would make the strongest aurors give pause and no adults have even tried to help, much less stop them, not even McGonagall?" After Fred and George nodded in agreement, Angelina started her rant up again. "So Harry is risking life and limb to protect the school from You-Know-Who and his pet basilisk, and no one seems to care as long as Harry doesn't get himself killed." Looking somewhat afraid of what reaction they'll get, Fred and George nodded, again worried what replying verbally would get them. They were glad they did, for few seconds after that, there was winds spinning up around the enraged witches.

"Before any of the girls get arrested for what seems to be rather justifiable homicide, I wonder if we sat down and put our mind to it, we could come up with a better option for our seeking friend." Lee's voice had calmed down the Gryffindor chaser line while Fred and George were sitting down from where they had gotten up to try to keep the girls from running off and killing Harry's relatives, or whomever, put Harry with them or both. Upon coming to grips with what Lee actually said, a large smile grew across the twins faces.

**A/N:** If anyone who is reading this is willing to Beta the rest of it please PM me at your earliest convenience, plan being an eight to twelve chapter fic, no regular updates just when I manage to finish the next chapter/feel its good enough to post.

Thank you,

Mad.

P.S. Don't forget to review. ;)


	2. Reserch and Suspicious Teachers

**Chapter 2**

"Alright", said Angelina to the manically grinning Fred and George, "What has you looking like the Kneazle in the cream?" The twins tried to appear offended at the looks they were getting but were too excited to make it work. Ever since the summer before the upcoming year they had been wracking their brains as they stayed huddled up in their room trying to come up with a way to protect Harry from some of the less trustworthy members of their family i.e.: Mum, Ron and Ginny; they weren't sure where Percy would land if he know of their mum's scheme or were to find out; they were worried how their parents, their mother really, would try to use Harry and the saving of Ginny to further her own objectives. Also trying to figure out how to tell Harry that his first friend in the Wizarding world, besides them of course, was someone other than he appears, and as loath as they were to say about family; should be treated the way someone acts around a Malfoy.

"Well my dear Angelina", said Fred with a twinkle in his eyes that harkened to Dumbledore, and Lockhart would have killed for before he wiped his own mind, "we, that is Gred and I have come up with a perfect plan to protect our dear ickle Harrykins." At this George took over the explanation.

"Yes indeed my dear Forge, quite right," seeing that the chaser line looked to be about to reach for their wands George continued, "what Harry needs right now is protection and some form of family, that is people that will let him know that they will put him first and protect him to their detriment if that is required."

"Better then letting him around mum." Fred said leading to an agreeing nod from George. Realizing that the rest of the table they were at had puzzled looks on their faces Fred explained, "Mum didn't know about the fact that the Weasley's were so poor financially before she married dad, their was apparently a curse on the fact that made it so unless you were part of the family you weren't allowed to talk about the family's business."

"Yes so while Dad probably told Mum that his family was in financial straits she most likely didn't think that it was as bad as it was due to the fact that Dad couldn't talk about it fully due to the curse or geas if you will. After Mum and Dad got engaged and Mum looked at the Weasley bank account and saw how much money was available she was quite annoyed, to put it lightly. What most people don't know is that Mum's family and Narcissa (Black) Malfoy's family traveled in the same circle until it was known that Mum had snagged Dad. Mum and Dad hooking up led to most of Mum's previous friends to desert her once it was known how bad the Weasley family was financially leading to Molly becoming a bored, lonely housewife with little to no social future." George finished.

"According to mum when she gets into the Firewiskey heavily", Fred added.

The twin's tablemates looked at the two Weasleys with surprise. They knew, given the number of Howlers the twins got from their mother, that the relations at home might be a little bit strained but nothing to this magnitude. Also the secrets of the Weasley's being used against them in such a way made them feel sorry for the twins in a way that they didn't normally feel.

"OK, so obviously some of our tempers are running hot, right now." Lee said after the silence got too heavy, "Why don't we all head back to Hogwarts, it's close enough to when we're suppose to start heading up that we won't draw too many odd looks. We can think about what we've talked about today and address whatever we come up with tomorrow. Does that sound good to everybody?" With an affirmative reply the female contingent of the Gryffindor quidditich team started out the bars doors. Lee was making his way after them when a hand on his arm stopped him.

"Lee, thank you for being there for us even when we don't realize we need your support," before Lee could reply to this unusual comment from the twins; Fred, he believed; started up again, "we hope we always have you in our corner and will try not to get you in too much trouble in the future." Shocked at the sincerity coming off both of the twins all Lee could do was nod and not say anything as the three boys continued their way up to the castle.

A few days after their meeting in Hogsmeade saw the Chaser line pouring over books in the library. Not that this was as strange as seeing the incomparable Weasley twins doing such a thing, but they still got their fair share of odd looks. This had to do with what books the three girls were looking at.

"Why are you looking at books involving family law?" George asked once he and Fred had gotten the attention of the girls. They quickly took a step back from the dark looks on the chaser's faces. Also, not that they were going to say anything, but with the way their hair was standing around their heads they girls vaguely resembled Gorgons or Medusas; even with their death defying pranking skills the twins realized this was not a correct thing to mention around witches in general and ones that know where they sleep in particular.

The particular reason that the chaser line looked so rumpled was because of some thing that they had read late the night before; that led to them staying in the library, until Madame Pince in the ritual of closing the night before had stumbled upon them. Under the librarian's suspicious look the girls quickly gathered up their notes and spare parchment and quills while asking that the books and scrolls that they were looking at not be re-shelved, but instead held for them for the next day as that they still need to look through them.

To the chasers great surprise their request was granted and the research material was handed over to them by a suspiciously scowling librarian who, the night before, had gone over what the girls had asked to be held for them and couldn't understand what they needed it for. However, given that it didn't break any law or school rules for the students to be looking at what the young ladies were looking at nor did the holding of such material cause red flags to be raised; on occasion a student would keep certain books that were needed for a project away from their classmate by putting it on hold until they were finished with it.

While Pince didn't like the practice, complaining to Dumbledore hadn't done any good, so she agreed to do it with a frown upon her face to show the students how much she disproved of what they where doing; hoarding knowledge from other students. It never crossed her mind that by so closely keeping track of "her" books, chasing them down constantly and trying to get as many students to either use the books in the library and leave them there when they're done or return the books well before there stated due dates she was doing the very thing she thought the students were doing, i.e. keeping knowledge from deserving pupils. Meanwhile in our regularly scheduled fic., the girls were answering the twins' question.

"We're checking to see if there is any way to help Harry with his problems concerning your mum and sister as well as the whole; having a Death Eater out for his blood as well." Alica responded. She quickly turned a glare on Angelina and Katie after they snorted at her concise if somewhat tactless summation of what they were doing. After the other two chasers apologized for their slight the three girls turn back to the boys to invite them to join in helping them protect their young friend.

Fred and George were very quickly doing some soul searching, the Weasleys due largely in response to how they were hoodwinked by some families of the era that they believed to be trusted allies who took that trust and used it to steal all of the money, land (exception the parcel that the Burrow was on) and good-will/prestige that was associated with the Weasley name caused the family to live by a belief of family first and keep everyone that can harm you at an arms length. Not that they made that opinion known, the twins mode of behavior was keep everyone at arms length by keeping them close.

That was one of the reasons that both Bill and Charlie had taken jobs outside of Britain, to make it harder for them or their family's enemies to use one against the others. Molly, who didn't believe in such things to the extent that Arthur did, was secretly of the opinion that it was more her husband's fascination with muggle that had led to the bad rap that the Weasleys had gotten from the British wizarding world. This was one of the reasons she was trying to get Harry and Ginny together, to get some sense of respectability back to the family not to mention an influx of Gallons from the varied vaults it was suspected Harry would have access to upon his reaching his majority.

The rescuing of Harry from his relatives last year had been due to the fact that looking at what Harry wore when he wasn't wearing his school uniform was tattered and frayed and led the twins, at the very least, to believe that The-Boy-Who-Lived wasn't treated well at home and even if Harry was thinking of ways to get something over on them, not knowing what if ever he was told a various wizarding families. This realization lead the twins to decide to cast their lot in with Harry and bugger their family if they can't realize that helping and supporting Harry in his time of trouble was more important than pretending to befriend the young wizard in order to maybe get some sort of payout at a later date.

Signifying their agreement Fred and George sat down at the table the girls were at and after getting a quill and parchment out of their bag pulled some of the books and scrolls that the girls had to read towards them to peruse. After a few moments pause, Lee sat down next to them and followed their lead.

Minerva McGonagall was surprised to see most of her quidditch team save its captain and seeker in her office, usually anything quidditch related for the house of Gryffindor was brought to her through Oliver Wood. To see the whole team minus those already mentioned plus the biased commentator Lee Jordan was quite a surprise that had never happened before so naturally she became suspicious; Thinking that whatever was going on was a prank perpetrated by the Weasley twins and their friend Lee, using the chaser line as a beard. That being the case and using the formidable presence that first being a teacher, then a head of house at Hogwarts these many years had given her, Minerva fixed her face in a slightly suspicious frown and opened her mouth to address her students.

"Misters Weasleys, Mister Jordan, Ms Johnson, Ms Bell, Ms Spinnet; what brings you to my office at this time without the rest of your team", giving the team her most penetrating look, she waited for their reply. After a few moments of shuffling Angelina Johnson by virtue of the facts that she was the most senior member of the team and that she usually had the least to do with the team helping the twins with their pranks, either in execution or trying to cover it up, was decided to be the spokesperson for the team as they came before their head of house.

"Professor McGonagall, we the Gryffindor quidditch team have come before you to ask if it would be ok for us to show Harry some of the spells we've learnt that we think might be helpful if any former Death Eater be it Sirus Black or ones that are in Azkaban, given that the recent breakout has shown that it is not as secure as we all thought it was. We have talked to Hermione about what Harry's performances in his classes this year have been. Given that what we plan to go over with him is mostly a charm based study, from what we read of Harry's grades thus far suggest that charms is one of his strongest subjects. Also we plan to go over Ancient Runes and Arithmancy given that we are uncertain if you counseled Harry on his third year options given how long he was in detention/the hospital wing last year and that he might not have known the pros and cons of the class and just signed up for the one's that he could understand in a general reading of the course overview pamphlet that is given to all second years around the winter holidays in their second year." Angelina requested, with the rest of the students by virtue of their bearing agreeing with her.

Minerva McGonnagall was fairly surprised by what Angelina had said; it was not what she had expected. Having heard the unfounded things that had been said to Mr. Potter over the last two years by his pears, especially last year during the whole Chamber of Secrets troubles Minerva was expecting to have the quidditch team to come to complain about unfair treatment from the Slytherins, given how Malfoy, both the senior and the elder had acted over the what was known in the teachers lounge as "the broom payoff" and now that there was a new broom on the market she was thinking that something like what happened before was happening again, so her teams request took some time to sink in.

Needing more information to go on McGonnagall asked the team to explain to her why exactly they think that the staff of Hogwarts had failed one of its students, especially one of McGonnagall's favorites. Not that that was all the quidditch team was saying, but that was what McGonnagall got out of the request. Looking between themselves the team continued.

"One thing that we noticed is that there is a permissive atmosphere in regards to rude or slanderous comments made against certain sub-members of the school" before McGonnagall could interrupt Angelina continued, "you have Hermione, one of the smartest student to ever grace Hogwarts being called; know-it-all, stuck up muggleborn slag, bookworm none of it in a remotely joking connotation that any of us have heard when we've been around when it's happened."

"Not to mention Malfoy's comment of 'you'll be next mudblood' that he directed at Hermione during the chamber of secrets episode last year", Fred commented with surprising seriousness. Most of the people in the room were surprised to hear one of the twins speak of something that was so close to their family, the chaser line plus Lee thought back to how distraught both Fred and George were to think that their youngest sibling and only sister would be lost to them forever. What they didn't know is that the twins had overheard Harry and Ron talking about going and trying to save Ginny. They didn't stop the two of them because if there was any hope of recovering Ginny they wanted it to be taken. Looking back on what the twins knew happened made them terrified of what might have gone wrong, but they were so worried over their sister and how the rest of their family might react to losing her that they didn't even think to stop either Harry or Ron.

"People's treatment of Harry after it was learned that he was a parselmouth, and how even after that he risked life and limb to save the school." Lee said. After they heard Lee's comment the rest of the team seemed to sink in on themselves, thinking of how they reacted when they learned that particular gem, "No wonder Harry doesn't seem to trust anyone but Hermione and Ron."

"Not to mention the way the rest of his dorm is treated by certain members of the school and staff." Alica sharply commented. At the slightly confused looks of the people surrounding her she elucidated, "Both Dean and the already mentioned Hermione get called mudblood, Neville gets called a squib, Seamus gets called half-blood, blood pollutant, mick and those are just the ones we've heard."

McGonagall sat back in surprise from all she had heard in the last half hour. She had noticed most of the things that had been brought up to her by the team but had never put it together the way that the quidditch team had presented it. However there was one thing that she wondered if the team in general and the twins in particular had thought about.

"Misters Weasley and the rest of you, assuming that I do grant the request that is put in front of me, what do you imagine your families reactions to this will be; have any of you spoken to your parents or guardians about what you are proposing to do?" McGonagall asked thinking that she would talk to Dumbledore about the other points that they brought up.

The quidditch team, walked back from their meeting with McGonagall in high spirits. While they weren't sure if their wishes were going to be granted, at least they made their presentation as best they could and had to hope for the best. Thinking back on what happened Angelina posed a question to the twins.

"Why didn't you mention your fear about your mother and sister to McGonagall?" Angelina asked the twins. As one, the qudditch team stopped and the members turned towards the twins waiting for their answer.

"Mum and dad are big with Dumbledore, we were afraid if we said anything to McGonagall she would report it to Dumbledore who would then tell our parents about it," the twins replied.

This made sense to the rest of the team and so they kept walking to their common room. Upon getting there they were greeted with an interesting sight; Harry and Hermione were sitting at one of the tables situated for doing your homework that were placeed around the room. Their diligence towards their studies was an inspiration to all who saw them save Ron. The redheaded part of the trio was alternatively trying to coerce Harry into slacking off and play chess with him, or getting Hermione to do his homework for him. Unfortunately (for Ron) neither of these attempts seemed to be working very well.

"How either of them ever stayed friends with your brother I don't understand." Katie commented to nods from the rest of the team.

Deciding to take their lead from their youngest member and one of his friends, the team went up to their dorm and brought down their homework. Sitting at another table the team wiled away a couple hours finish most of their homework for that week, as well as helping each other and keeping an eye on the "Golden Trio". Satisfaction was had by all until if was time for dinner; well except Ron, although he did perk up once dinner was announced.

None of them noticed Ginny sitting in an alcove watching and writing on a piece of parchment. Problems would be coming from what was happening in the common room that day but few, if any of them, recognized that at the time.

**A/N: **Don't forget to review tell me what you think of the fic.; if its going in the right direction.


	3. Sharing the Plan

**A/N: **Sorry, had family in town made this come out later than I anticipated; will push back the release of the rest of the fic as well, it looks like.

**Chapter 3**

Angelina, Alica and Katie were standing in front of Gringotts Hogmeads branch waiting for the twins and Lee; the boys had gotten in trouble for a prank that they pulled on some Slytherins that they found picking on some muggleborn first years. Fortunately McGonagall was sympathetic to the fact that the twins where trying to help other people, something she didn't realize with the Marauders and was only able to recognize after a few soul searching conversations with Remus Lupin earlier this year. However school rules had been broken, and while the punishment may not have been as hard as it was in earlier years, the twins and Lee were sentenced to a week's detention. Severus' and Molly demands not withstanding; McGonagall, the twins and Lee all felt that the punishment was due and just.

"Wonder how much better Harry is doing in his classes." Alica said to the other two witches standing beside her. Two nods of the head were the response she got.

"Wonder when Ronald is going to leave The Studious Gryffindor Duo." Katie replied. That was the name Harry and Hermione had gotten from the Ravenclaws who had taken to watching how much the two friends had taken to studying, not that it was unusual to see Hermione spending hours in the library wing, but Harry doing it was something else. Ronald on the other hand had taken to trying to distract the studious Gryffindors in different ways. With Hermione he had, much like before, taken to badgering the girl into doing his essays' for him. However, unlike the previous years; Harry taking his studies seriously, mostly due to the threat that Black was presenting, gave Hermione enough of a backbone to tell Ron to do the work himself. This had lead to a number of fights between the two including one right after Ron was told by McGonagall that he would have to re-due his last essay as it didn't hold to the standards she expected from her third year students. Ron's explanation that it wasn't done correctly because Hermione hadn't helped him with it was met with frank disbelief from the head of Gryffindor, causing Ron to get a weeks worth of detentions for lying to a teacher. This had widened the gap between the three students.

Since his appeals for Harry and Hermione's attention had gone badly, Ron had spent most of his days playing chess against any who would agree to play him. While Ron's split from Harry and Hermione had divided the dorm against him somewhat; given the way Harry was treated last year from most people thinking he was the "Heir of Slytherin" and how that was laid to waste by Harry almost dying to save Ginny from Slytherin's monster, and how he now had a homicidal madman after him this year caused most people to think of Harry in a better light than he had been since reappearing into the wizard world. Unfortunately for Ron this led to him being minimized in a house that had always been know as a haven for Weasley. Given that Ron thought that he'd have more people sympathizing with him. Unfortunately for Ron, most of his house mate saw him as noting less than a hanger-on, not someone worthy of spending time with.

Harry Potter was walking down the hallway after his Charms class, which was also his last class of the day. Given how Ron and Hermione had been acting since the whole Sirus Black situation, Hermione trying to get Harry and Ron to study for any trouble they might come into that year, Ron ignoring it as if he wished hard enough if would all go away like a bad dream and focusing on improving his chess and quidditch performance so he could try out after Wood graduates at the end of the year. As he turned the corner he heard a strange noise coming from the darkness.

"Psst, hey mate, over here," came out of the corridor to Harry's right. Looking in the direction the whisper came out of with his wand in his hand ready to be used if it turned out to be Sirus Black, Harry was both surprised and unsurprised to see Fred and George Weasley standing in the shadow in what looked like an alcove off of the main throughway Harry was on.

"What are you two skulking around for?" Harry asked the twins. Rolling his eyes at the over the top appalled looks on Fred and Georges faces Harry calmly yet suspiciously walked over to where the two prime trouble makers of Gryffindor were standing.

"Harry, you wound us, here we are trying to do you a good turn and you treat us with unreasonable suspicion" ignoring the incredulous snort that Harry gave, the twins continued, "all we are trying to do is help you in your time of troubles, we merely ask that you hear what we have to say; if you don't want to go along with what we have planned then we will let you go on your way." Fred and George replied. Rolling his eyes Harry replied.

"I apologize for my grievous insult to Mssr. Gred and Forge and beg their indulgence and forgiveness for such a heinous transaction against them. Now that the niceties have been maintained can you please explain why the two of you feel the need to hide in the shadows and startle already nervous third years?" Harry sarcastically asked Fred and George. The twins were quite surprised with Harry's behavior and gave him a somewhat suspicious glare to return the one that Harry gave them at the beginning of their meeting.

"If you would please just follow us all of your questions will be answered." Fred stated as he waved his arm towards the alcove he and George were standing in. Seeing the fact that Harry was still nervous the twins looked at each other for a moment, simultaneously they pulled out their wands. Instantly Harry's wand was in his hand, but he needn't have worried.

"I Fredrick Gideon Weasley, I George Fabian Weasley swear on my magic that we mean Harry James Potter no ill will and along with the rest of his team wish to talk to him about something that might benefit him in the coming month in regards to his present troubles, also and including troubles he may not know that he has." While Harry sometimes found their "twinspeak" annoying their oath seemed genuine and he figured if he could trust his friends and teammate then he might as well seek out Sirius Black and make it easy for him anyways. Coming to that conclusion Harry followed Fred and George back through the door at the end of the alcove and was surprised to see most of the rest of his quidditch team waiting for him, including the quidditch announcer and twins' best friend, Lee Jordan. Before he could run away and deal with the flashback he was having of Dudley and his gang doing something similar to him, he felt a comforting hand from one of the twins behind him reminding him of their pledge, and Angelina began speaking.

"We were talking in Hogsmead a week ago, and the talk turned to what our missing teammate was up to." Angelina said; gesturing to the rest of the team surrounding them, seeing the pinched look on Harry's face that Fred and George had mentioned was Harry's stock face when ever someone, in Harry's opinion, treats him like a baby. Given what Harry did to save their Ginny the twins were in the regard that the last thing anyone should say to Harry was that he was just a child. Seeing the look on Harry's face, Angelina was quick to cut Harry off at the pass.

"Think about this for a second, Harry," Angelina requested, "who gave you hints on how to deal with people thinking that you were the Heir of Slytherin last year. Did I or any of the team act any differently around you and not try to help you get a bead on how to handle the parseltongue stigma that most of the school levied unfairly against you? It's like Ollie always says; your team is your family, more so than just your house, consider how close we have to be to be a properly functioning team. All we want to do is look after a member of our family, we would expect you to participate in the same thing if it was one of us that were having the troubles you currently are having."

Harry slowly let out the breath he was holding. While he hated being seen as weak and in need of pity, living with the Dursley had shown him that the axiom "fake it till you make it" was the proper way to live one's life. Deciding that he should have as much information as he could; given how much knowing about the Basilisk had mentally helped him prepare for the Chamber incident, at least he thought at the time.

"What is it that you want to talk about?" Harry asked after giving the teams actions to him some thought and deciding that, losing 150 points in one night aside, they had always treated him fairly and he deserved at the vary least to hear them out and see what had all of them looking so concerned.

"Harry, don't take this the wrong way, but we're worried about you", Katie said. It was decided that of all of them, Katie being the closest in age to Harry that she would be the one to discuss their concerns with the seeker. Seeing the wary, somewhat defensive look beginning to crop up on Harry's face she continued, "with everything that has either been expressly explained or rumored about what has happened to you and to a lesser extent Ron and Hermione and how we do look upon you as somewhat of a little brother to the whole team the fact that you have a maniacal mass murderer who is second only to You-Know-Who himself in terms of ability for dark curses and has most likely been holding a grudge against you for what you've done to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and the general set back you've accomplished in the general aims of dark wizardry with your vanquishing He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named." Before Katie could continue Harry swiftly interrupted her.

"Call him Tom," Harry suggested, seeing the confused look on the people surrounding him Harry explained, "he's a halfblood who was born Tom Marvolo Riddle, so if you don't want to call him Voldemort," here Harry waited a beat while everyone else around him shuddered at the feared name, "why not call him by his birth name?" After a pause the silence was broken by Lee.

"He's a halfblood, the darkest wizard of the ages who had all of the dark pureblooded families all torturing and killing wizards in the name of blood purity is actually one of the blood types that he preaches against?" Lee questioned with surprise that was mirrored on the team's faces. Harry nodded, "Bloody hell, I guess that's not something he let his followers know about." With a little smirk Harry shook his head in agreement. Having listened to everything that had been said so far Angelina asked if they could have a break so they could absorb what they had heard so far. Everyone else was in agreement so they quickly split up by sexes. While Fred, George and Lee asked Harry when he had learned this and why hadn't he told anyone; Harry replied that he learned it last year, told Dumbledore who he figured was to busy cleaning up the fallout from last year and would tell wizarding Britain at a more appropriate time.

"Alright, alright while this is all very interesting: we, or more likely someone in the DMLE, will have to look into this more so at a later point, if we could get back to the task at hand." Fred asked after a while.

"Quite right dear brother, quite right," agreed George. The rest of the team snorted at the idea of the twins of all people trying to maintain a sense of discipline and order over anything. After a halfhearted attempt to appear offended the twins settled down and gestured to Angelina who seemed to have finished what ever she had written on the parchment she brought with them to talk to Harry. Thinking about the best way to handle the situation she decided that straightforwardness would be her best recourse.

"We're trying to figure out a way to adopt you in order to give you more stability and a better chance at fitting in the wizarding world," Katie told Harry bluntly. Taking in his shocked look Katie came back to the point she was trying to make when they first dragged Harry into the alcove.

"We've watched you over the time you've been here at Hogwarts and have come to the conclusion that you've gotten the short end of the stick in the way your life has been up to now." Katie, with the help of the rest of the team went over what they had come to realized about Harry's life. Harry was shocked that someone had come so close to what he'd tried to hide; more so that they cared about it enough to try to do something about it. He thought with the way Dumbledore acted after he'd complained about the way the Dursley's treated him, compiled by the way most people at Hogwarts seemed to judge him before they got all of the facts, including the professors; meant that no one really cared about Harry; just the Boy-Who-Lived. After dealing with Ginny and Colin last year he was almost certain of that. The team's action made him start to trust people again, at least enough not to try to act like everything was ok; realizing this lead to Harry breaking down in tears, the fact that they realized that with the magic he knew at his grade level combined with luck, plus a large amount of help from Hermione was the only thing that had kept him alive for the last two years. The thought that his team thought that he was worth the extra time and effort made him loss control of his closely guarded emotions. A startled Angelina scooped Harry up in a hug, rubbing his back and just holding him as he let out all of the feelings that he'd kept bottled up. While she was doing this Angelina shared a number of significant looks with the rest of the people in the room.

Harry took a deep breath and calmly but gently separated himself from Angelina. Looking at the people before him, Harry was swept with a deep sense of gratitude. Thinking about what they were asking of him, Harry couldn't see any downside. After a moment; Harry took a breath, looked up and began to speak.

"Thank you for what you want to do for me, I'm sorry that I was suspicious of your intentions. It's just with my home life added to the way I'm treated in the wizarding world makes it hard for me to trust anyone." Seeing the hurt looks on the faces of his teammates Harry continued, "added to the fact that when McGonnagall took fifty points off of Hermione, Ron and I none of you even acted as though you were interested in my side of the story, you took to either ignoring or belittling me, not to mention the way the whole school excepting Fred and George acted last year when it was revealed that I was a parseltounge so it made me not completely trust people other than Ron or Hermione." After hearing Harry's explanation of why he was so suspicious/distrustful of them the Gryffindor team felt very sheepish and embarrassed about their past behavior. Realizing from what both was and wasn't said the team offered Harry the promise to let him in on all factions of their plan going forward to Harry's surprise and pleasure that someone aside from Ron and Hermione were listening to him taking his needs into consideration. Before any of them could offer an apology Harry spoke again.

"Given what you've said some thought I've decided that I would like to go though with the ritual, if for no other reason than to have some stability and the ability to have more of a say in my own life." The team looked happy that Harry was letting them help him, as they were about to say something Harry spoke again.

"Thank you for looking upon a poor orphan boy and seeing someone of worth," Harry said with shiny eyes. The twins and Lee had similar looks on their faces. The Chaser line, being female and having no trouble accessing their emotions, had tears running down their faces as they stepped forward and enveloped Harry in a hug. Harry tensed for a minute but eventually accepted the contact. Seeing that Harry was letting someone comfort him, Lee and the twins stepped forth to add their own show of companionship and solidarity to Harry and got swept up in the group hug as well. As Harry was enjoying the feeling of somebody giving a damn about him a thought struck his mind.

"Where's Ollie?" Harry questioned. Amid the laughter this question evoked in the team it was explained that when they went to Oliver to get his opinion of the adoption scheme after being assured that his prize seeker would be able to play in the next match the keeper went back to thinking up new plays for the Gryffindor's to try against the other teams. Seeing Harry looking sad and correctly thinking that it was because Harry was thinking that Oliver didn't care about him as much as the rest of the team, it was explained that Oliver was such a quidditch fanatic that anything outside of that barely registered to him. While feeling better about everything Harry wondered if it were possible to get Oliver to seek professional help over his quidditch enthusiasm; thinking about it some more Harry realized that they'd need to include Ron in it as well. Commenting on this to the team was met with peals of laughter. Fred and George jokingly commented that they needed to be excused to send an owl to their dad with that suggestion.

"So, do we need to research anything to make this work or do you already have that part figured out?" Harry asked. The team looked at him and thought about their answer. They had done research and come up with what they thought was the best plan to free up Harry to be able to live his life the way the young wizard would want to; however no plan was foolproof and so they all went with Harry to the library. Upon reaching the library, or Hermione's second home as Harry referred to it, and again under the suspicious glares of Madame Pince, Harry was lead through the books the team had looked at that formed the back bone of their plan. After looking at some other books that covered similar situations Harry agreed that what they had come up with was the best idea. Asked when they planed to put it into production. The team thought for a moment and decided that the next Hogsmead weekend was probably the best time to do it. When the chaser line started worrying about whether or not Harry would be able to get to the bank given the fact that he is not allowed outside of the castle on those weekends the twins and Lee declared they had it covered.

Harry was very surprised to learn about the Marauder's Map. He quickly agreed with the twins and Lee that this was a very important tool that anyone who felt the need to creep around Hogwarts after hours would consider a boon. The many tunnels out of the school to different locations in and around Hogsmead, Harry thought were overkill, although he kept that to himself not wanting to offend the twins nor Lee. After thanking them and promising to keep the map a secret, Harry and the three troublemakers parted ways.

As the girls were getting ready to summon an elf and ask it to get the boys in front of them as quickly as possible, potentially risking the wrath of Hermione if she ever learned in the future about them doing it (I don't know, maybe one of them's a seer), they saw two identical persons followed by another smaller darker figure wandering towards them. Alica saw them and nudging the other two witches brought the fact to their attention as well. As the boys noticed them the strange occurrence of a mud splattered Draco, Crabbe and Goyle ran by as if the hounds of hell were on their tails. Shrugging their shoulders the team finally got together, before they went inside Angelina decided to go over their plan one more time.

"Alright, listen up," Angelina stated, sounding like the Quidditch captain that Oliver was grooming her to become, "we all know why we're here and what we are here to do," the team nodded while Fred and George grimaced, "this is our way of protecting and looking out for Harry." Seeing the happiness that permeated the team Angelina felt it necessary to make them all aware of what the reality would most likely be.

"However, as much as we want to get Harry cleanly away from those that wish to use him to his detriment we are, most likely, too young to actually adopt him," Angelina waited out the yelling and cursing that was going on around her, thinking idly that they should have done this somewhere more inconspicuous. Lee Jordan was apparently thinking the same thing and he took to acting on it. After quickly throwing up a _muffliato_ Lee nodded for Angelina to continue, after a responding nod of thanks, Angelina did so.

After talking to the twins about this, due to their brother working for Gringotts; Fred and George sent him an owl. The responding owl gave some helpful points in speaking to goblins. This was helpful, because looking in the library didn't give them much new information on adoptions or any information on how to deal with goblins, and what it did give was prejudice in favor of wizards. They were thankful; both for their brothers' help, and the fact that in responding to their letter, he didn't ask questions they didn't want to answer.

"Now the twins have gotten a reply back from their brother who works for Gringotts, that outlines the following areas to watch out for when dealing with goblins. Since the twins were the ones to get this information I'll let them continue." After saying this Angelina stood back and motioned to Fred and George. The twins had surprised their teammates with how serious they were taking trying to help Harry. Even though they had brought it up, the team and Lee had thought that once they had turned the problem over to other people they would just go back to playing pranks, neglecting their studies and other ways of giving their mother and prefect brother reasons to pull their hair out. However, the twins had realized that if this went through the way that they had hoped it would the team would be looked upon in a favorable light; not that this was a driving force in why they were still working as hard as they were, Harry was more a brother to them then Ron, but it was a nice stimulus. With these and other thoughts in their heads they turn and entered the bank.

**A/N: **Don't forget to review; tell me what you think of the fic.; if its going in the right direction ..


	4. Goblins and Professors

**Chapter 4**

Watching the group of school children come in the bank the goblin noticed numerous things; they all seemed to be around the same age, they seemed to be good friends and they seemed to be paired up evenly in male/female groupings. Now he was not saying that they were on a date while coming to the bank but the way they handled themselves and their closeness seemed to subtlety suggest such a thing. Not that as a goblin he was supposed to care about such things, however understanding body languege and interpersonal relations of their customers helped them get the most profit out of their customers transactions. While Fireroc's way of thinking was in many ways seen as a strike against everything that the goblins had fought for against wizards off and on throughout the years, Fireroc wondered what the wizards would do if they ever thought of the fact that the beings that they looked down on and distained had control over most if not all of their monies.

It would seem that Ragnok had similar thoughts as he told his best goblin ward smiths to layer wards on or through any Gringotts property that at a particular spoken word would summarily evict anyone not welcomed by the code word i.e. witches and wizards, if they ever got it in their heads to start a rush on the bank in time of great stress; either financially, municipally or during times of war. Thankfully it hadn't been necessary to test the wards since Ragnok had become the chief goblin throughout Gringotts, Fireroc wondered if they where about to have a test of the wards in the next few minutes. He quickly shrugged off the thought, reminding himself that if the Malfoy patriarch did nothing to activate the wards a bunch of school age children was nothing to fear.

Meanwhile the group had discussed it amongst themselves and decided that Lee would be that initial spokesperson for their group. While some people would think that this would be a bad idea; McGonagall and Hermione amongst them, what people didn't realize is that Lee was the person who played lookout for the twins and their pranks and offered the explanation of why they were doing what their were doing and how their activities didn't break any school rules, this lead to varying responses depending upon whom it was that Lee was speaking to; Professors like Snape and the afore mentioned McGonagall figured most of what Lee said out of class to be little more than a snow job, Dumbledore and Flitwick found his and the twins explanations to be quite humorous, however, they always warned them to think about the repercussions of their actions.

Just as Fireroc was going to alert some security goblins about the crowd in the vestibule they started moving forward into the bank proper. One thing that Fireroc noticed that was different; most Hogwarts students that come in here on the weekends that descend on Hogsmead was that this group, instead of seeming arrogant and full of themselves, seemed nervous and afraid.

As the unofficial spokesperson, Lee had decided that he was going to talk to the team about using him as their scapegoat when it was necessary to talk to elder beings about uncomfortable things. Especially the twins, with their brother working for Gringotts and having given them the information they might need to get out of what they were doing alive. However, at the moment he had to deal with a goblin scowling at him.

"What can Gringotts do for you today, wizard?" The goblin said after a moment. That is not to say it sounded slavish or willing to please. Time, after all, was gallons and it had other work to occupy its attention if these stupid humans didn't know enough of their business to be worthy of his time. After a moment's pause Lee spoke.

"If he's not too busy, we would like to speak with the goblin in charge of family affairs," Lee stated with nary a shake in his tone. The goblin's eye at the end of Lee's request had climbed his forehead to end up looking as though it was permanently stuck in its hair.

"And why do you consider yourself to be worthy of Fireroc's time?" The goblin teller asked with a somewhat shocked look on his normally taciturn face.

"Because we're trying to save the Potter scion from enemies he doesn't know he has and may think of as friends," Lee replied truthfully. Before any of them could think, much less move, a platoon of goblin warriors had surrounded them with the teller wearing a ferocious expression in Lee's face.

"What designs do you have on the scion of the ancient and noble Potter heir?" The lead goblin asked threateningly with a grip on the collar of Lee's robes. The team, seeing the look in the surrounding goblins eyes raised their hands in a non-threatening manor and took a step back from the teller counter. Lee took a deep breath and opened his mouth to answer the goblin, he quickly went over the information the twins got from their curse-breaker brother Bill, only hoping that it was correct and he wouldn't cause another war between the two communities.

"Only those to help as one friend to another," Lee replied, quite bravely considering that he had a goblin's dirk stuck under his jaw, more than aware of the blood that was trickling down his chin and neck. After a few more tense moments the lead goblin lowered his dirk, let go of Lee and stepped back from the wizards, a few barked words in gobbledegook leading to the goblins surrounding the team to resume their posts in and around the bank. Looking closely, the team could see the nooks and cervices that hid the goblin warriors when they were not needed. Fred and George were already planning a strongly worded letter to their eldest brother regarding him not mentioning anything that just happened might happen; they might even out do their mother with her howlers. However, these were thoughts for another time; they had more pressing concerns at the moment, namely the goblins that while not threatening to kill them anymore where still looking at them with distrust and suspicion, hands hovering over their swords. Lee and the teams attention was brought back to the goblin in front of them when he began to speak again.

"How do you expect Gringotts to assist you in helping the scion of the Ancient and Nobel House of Potter?" The now slightly more friendly goblin questioned. Even though the goblins seemed to have had an attitude adjustment the team decided to be wary of the goblins after the way they were treated. Noticing that they were getting looks from the patrons of the bank not to mention some not so friendly looks from the remaining goblins, Lee asked if their was a private room that could be used for them to state their case.

"There are such rooms as you requested," the goblin replied, upon the look on the wizards' face he continued, "however a small fee is required in order to use them." Upon agreeing on the letting price, the quidditich team was led to what looked like a small board room. After taking their seats the team looked at Lee who, under the skewering look from the goblin, started talking.

"We have reason to believe that a party or parties are preparing to illegally douse the last remaining Potter." Seeing the look on the face of the goblin and noticing the way his hand seemed to be reaching for something on its belt and remembering that goblins were reputed to have wicked blades upon their persons, Lee sharply looked over at Fred and George who picked up the conversation.

"As much as it pains us to admit it, we believe that certain members of my and George's family are looking to take advantage of Harry's lack of knowledge of the wizarding world." Fred was about to continue when he noticed the darkening countenance of the goblin in front of him. Shifting his feet slightly incase speaking caused the goblin to attack him over some transgression he was not aware of, Fred spoke up again.

"While we don't agree with it, we are of the opinion that my mother, and third eldest brother; possibly using our youngest brother and sister as patsies, are attempting to take control of the Potter fortune. Our mother, for years, has told our sister how she ensnared our father using love potions when they were both at Hogwarts. Given that her life hasn't turn out the way she expected it to and that when she thinks no one is paying attention she goes through the society section of the Prophet and mumbles to herself about what it will be like to live that life once Ginny marries Harry, we think that she would do anything to make her dreams a reality. Our sister has been brought up, not just on tales of our parents courtship but also veiled fantasy of a beautiful princess being rescued by a handsome prince who happens to resemble our sister and Harry Potter in their description, so it is possible that Ginny has been brainwash into thinking that she and Harry are meant for each other and is not a willing participant in the scheme to defraud the Potter scion. George and I ask that if it comes to this that Ginny is tested at a medical facility to determine if she is under any behavior modification potions or charms before any action is taken against her in relation to the embezzlement of Harry's vault." Fred stated.

The goblin looked at the team, but more importantly the twin, with a look that if on any other being would be called respect; which it was. Here were two members of a family that had realized that their family might be committing a crime and instead of trying to sweep it under the rug or work with witches and wizards to minimize the damage they instead come to a party that is neutral in the conflict and asked them to investigate and if necessary see to the appropriate punishments. Also it could be suggested that they were trying to save their presumably innocent sister from any further complications.

"Also there is the fact that if Hogwarts is any indication the wizarding world is all too willing to believe the worst of Harry with little to no investigation into alternative means." Alica replied. As the rest of the room digested this last bit of information there was noise from the door, the team turned and saw another goblin come in and head for the goblin at the front of the table. Seeing that he had the tables' attention the goblin at the head of it started speaking.

"This is the Potter account manager Bonecrusher," the goblin said gesturing to the goblin sitting on his left, "My name is Skullripper, I am the overseer of Gringotts accounts." After letting the wizards and witches absorb what he said as well as whom they were talking to (not to mention the goblins names) Skullripper continued, "I have heard that you are trying to assist the Potter scion, that is something we want also; how can we help?" After taking a moment to ponder how different the day had gone from how they expected it to Alica explained why they where there and what they hoped to accomplish. A moment of silence was given as Skullripper and Bonecrusher absorbed all that they were told. After the goblins communicated with each other in gobbledygook for a few minutes Bonecrusher turned and spoke to the team.

"We will have to verify what you have told us and if it bears further investigation we will look into the avenues that are available, if you'd like we could keep you informed of what we find out; for a small fee of course." The team, wishing for any way possible to help Harry gladly agreed to this arrangement. As there business was finished the team and the goblins bid each other good day and the wizards and witches left the bank. Realizing that they still had two hours of the day to spend at Hogsmead, the team went into Hogheads and ordered a round of butterbeers, after a few contemplative sips were had by all Lee spoke.

"I don't mind helping Harry and I hope this turns out for the best, but I've got to say; that was one of the most nerve wracking experiences of my short life." The rest of the team agreed as they went back to sipping their butterbeers.

A few days after the quidditch team's meeting, an owl was winging its way to Hogwarts. As Harry sat down to lunch with Ron and Hermione, talking about nothing of importance in order to keep their mind off the fact that a Dark Lord-devoted, mass murderer had it out for Harry when owls started flowing into the hall; as Hedwig flew towards Harry most people in the hall noticed the other was flying towards Dumbledore.

Being well trained by his owl, Harry raised one arm forming a perch for Hedwig to land on as the remaining arm continued to feed himself breakfast. After Harry cleared the fork of what was on it he turned his attention to his owl, which had been glaring at him slightly for neglecting it. Hedwig barked her thanks as she dove into a steaming bowl of bacon, briefly Harry wonder if the reason Gryffindor's table contained so many bowls of bacon was to feed post owls, or possibly just to feed Ron. Through his musing and feeding of his owl Harry had managed to get the letter attached to it off of Hedwig. About to open it, his attention was drawn to the head table where Dumbledore was dogging spell fire from what looked to be most of his staff while they screamed at him. Watching the spectacle, Harry wondered what it was all about.

Albus Dumbledore, he of the many titles, was not surprised to see an owl winging its way towards him; he often had various people asking for his time. Offering the owl some of the treats that were located at the staff table, Dumbledore got down to reading his letter. Upon scanning the first couple of lines he quickly jumped up from his seat and ran to his office. Quickly sitting down he reread the letter that he had just gotten. He hadn't misread it. It read:

"Albus Dumbledore you are to be charged for mismanagement of the Potter account, as you were name regent in absentia while Harry was outside of the Wizarding world. However, once he returned to the wizarding world explanations about his heritage, place in society and management of his funds were supposed to be put into effect. As this hasn't been accomplished the regency of the Potter account is to be taken from you and given to someone more worthy of the position. All of the contracts that you have signed as the Potter regent are being reviewed. If anything is seen to have been done against the interest of the Potter heir suitable disciplinary action will be taken. As it stands a minimal fine will be filed against you for your poor treatment of the Potter heir. Be at the ready for any forth coming audits, Sincerely Potter account manager Bonecrusher."

Sitting back after putting the letter on his desk Dumbledore would have to admit that he was at a loss, it wasn't out of a sense of malevolence that he kept the information from Harry. When he deposited Harry on the Dursley's doorstep that Halloween night he began putting warming and protection charms on Harry after scanning the boy for anything that might interfere with his protections; both immediately and with the blood wards he was casting. Upon detection of the soul shard imbedded in Harry, his heart sank when he realized that this boy would endure years of hardship just to die a young death removing Tom and his evil from the world. He realized now that nothing could be done for it now he would have to send Harry with a professor to Gringotts and hope whatever it was they wanted Harry for wouldn't disrupt his plans that much. Little did he know how much he would be scrambling to get solid footing when the dust settled.

As soon as he finished reading the missive from Gringotts Harry put it in a pocket on the inside of his cloak. Ignoring the questions coming from Hermione and Ron, Harry sat and thought about what he needed to do. It was obvious that he couldn't go tromping off to Gringotts by himself, evidently an adult chaperone would be needed; Harry knew who it was that he wanted to take him, but given that person's subservience to Dumbledore, he wondered if it was even worth the trouble of asking them for help, given how little he had gotten from any of the staff in the last two years, but it would appear that he didn't have much choice. Planning the correct way to phrase it, Harry got up from his table and made his way towards the Head table.

Professor McGonagall had just calmed down from trying to hex the Headmaster, it greatly saddened her to learn how her blindly following the headmaster for so many years had lead to this. Thinking back on it she remembered the times that Harry and his friends had come to her to complain about Snape's treatment, but any time she had brought it up in the past Dumbledore had just replied that while Severus may have an intense teaching style, the students were blowing their grievances out of proportion.

Her meeting with her quidditch team had set things straight for her. While if just the twins and Lee had come to her with the complaints she would have dismissed them as trying to cause trouble, with the backing of the chaser line it had led her to taking a stronger look at her fellow teachers. After what she found she was dismayed to realize that one of the reasons she dismissed Harry and his friends with their complaints in first year was in part due to how much Harry looked like his father. She was reminded of how the elder Potter would "cry wolf" about something similar to what Harry had come up to her about that would just turn out to be him and his friends giving various professors excuses as to how they were not responsible for what ever prank that had gone off. Something that neither she nor most of the other professor had ever given credence to is that a number of pranksters were using the Marauders as a cover to be able to do their own pranking without getting caught due to the suspicion instantly being directed to wormtail, moony, padfoot and prongs. This had, unfortunately, led McGonagall to see Harry as his father perhaps to greater an extent than Severus did, leading to her not taking Potter and his friends knowing about the Philosophers Stone being in danger in his first more seriously, leading to them going out on their own and two of them at the very least almost dying trying to keep that monster from returning. She decided that while she would take what the students told her with a grain of salt, she wouldn't just dismiss their claims out-of-hand based on their reputation or who their relatives were. She tuned back in to hear the Headmaster and Harry arguing about who should take Harry to Gringotts. Dumbledore was arguing in favor of Professor Snape. Anybody who even briefly paid any attention to Snape and Harry's interactions would know that Severus was the last person to escort Harry anywhere, even Argus with his constant suspicion of the student compiled with his bitterness from being a squib would be a better choice than Severus. Feeling that her input was required she turned towards Albus and Harry and began speaking.

"Mister Potter, if you would have me, I would be pleased to be you escort to Gringotts. Is the upcoming weekend convenient for you and Gringotts?" Seeing Harry nod with a smile on her face and ignoring Dumbledore's frown she continued, "I will expect you in the entrance hall directly after breakfast this coming Saturday, is that alright with you?" Seeing Harry nod his head with a large smile on his face made a smile come to her face. After biding Harry get back to his meal she turned to her own only to be interrupted by Albus.

"Might I ask why you went against my edict that young Harry should be accompanied by Severus, Minerva?" Albus questioned. Although to those around him it was seen to be more of an order than a request. McGonagall calmly lifted her napkin to her lips and delicately blotted them, before replying.

"Given that I am the head of Harry's house and it states in the Hogwarts charter that all students are to be accompanied by either their head of house or an adult pick by that head, it is well within my duties to accompany Harry on his errand, so Severus' assistance won't be necessary." McGonagall calmly stated causing slightly different reactions from two of her tablemates. Dumbledore looked like he was hit with a fish, were as Snape looked as though he dodged an AK. He was more than happy to leave the impudent brat to Minerva than take away his precious time to assist in the lauding of more unwarranted accolades on the spawn of James Potter.

Harry Potter stood in front of Gringotts Hogsmeade. As he looked at the bank he noticed with some amusement that it looked virtually identical to the Gringotts in Diagon Alley except it was roughly 3/4 of the size. Any further musings where dismissed when a voice next to him broke through his thoughts.

"Well Mister Potter, are we going to do this or not?" Looking up Harry saw his transfiguration professor and head of house staring at him with an stern expression, somewhere between aggravation and concern, a slightly unusual expression to be on her face but given how almost everyone he knew in the wizarding world had taken to treating him as though he was made out of glass since the news that Sirius Black had broken out of Azkaban and was on the run, it wasn't surprising. Nodding to his professor the two of them stepped forward and entered Gringotts.

Upon entering Gringotts, Harry was not very surprised to see that aside from being smaller, roughly ¾ in scale, the branch of Gringotts in Hogwarts didn't look that much different than its fellow branch in Diagon Alley. As they walked towards the teller counter Harry noticed that there weren't as many people in this branch of the bank as there was when he went to Gringotts this summer. Realizing the person ahead of him was finished with their business and had begun to leave towards where he expected the tracks to the vaults were, Harry stepped up to the teller's window.

"Honored goblin I am responding to a missive that was sent to me earlier this week. Please accept my apologies for my tardiness, owing to the fact that I am a minor and require an adult as a chaperone and one wasn't available until now. I present myself at your leisure and will wait till I am called for my business. May your gold grow and your enemies fall under your blade." Harry finished this with a silent bow as he stepped back next to a somewhat shocked McGonagall. Privately Harry was thanking the twins for writing their cursebreaking brother and asking him to send them an explanation on the best way for dealing with the goblins. However, one of the things that Bill warned against is that while being deferential to the goblins were a good idea, acting too much so was taken as mocking. So there was a fine balance to be had. Harry stepped back and went to wait by the wall when he was called by a voice off to the side.

"Would the Potter heir come forward?" The voice of the goblin that was speaking came from the recessed door near where Harry and McGonagall were standing. Chuckling over seeing his normally reserved professor show so much of a reaction Harry tried to get his laughter under control. As he followed the goblin into the hallway it gestured to, ignoring his professors somewhat stern glare for his laughter at her brief slip. As they made their way into the room that looked like a normal muggle office, the only real difference being the goblin sitting behind the ornate desk that Harry's uncle Vernon would commit any number of crimes to be able to possess. Looking up the goblin began to speak.

"You are Harry Potter the scion of The Ancient and Nobel Potter family?" The goblin questioned. After Harry nodded in the affirmative the goblin continued, "There are things that need to be completed first before you speak to your account manager." Seeing the curious look on Harry's face the goblin explained, "There is a large amount of unclaimed wealth that you may be claimant to, in order to verify that, certain tests will need to take place." Seeing the look on McGonagall's face and speaking before she had time to, the goblin continued, "While these tests could not be considered non-invasive, no permanent injuries will be happening to you, do you agree to this test?" At the end of the goblin's explanation and upon his question, Harry nodded showing his understanding and his agreement with the idea put forth.

The goblin, who Harry learned was called Bloodtooth, got up and went to a wall. Running his finger down a portion of the wall caused it to open up in a manner similar to the vault that Hagrid took the Philosophers Stone out of the summer he accompanied Harry before his first year. Out of what Harry could only guess was a personal vault, Bloodtooth took what looked like a quill and a strange device that looked like a bowl attached to a pad of paper. Harry wondered if it was used to write notes while eating. Upon thinking that, he realized that he was rather hungry and wondered how much longer this was going to take. Realizing that Bloodtooth was looking at him, Harry sat up straight and gave the goblin his complete attention. Seeing that Harry was paying attention to him Bloodtooth started explaining what he had put on the desk.

"This is how Gringotts makes sure that the person that claims to be the heir of the vault their trying to claim isn't wrongfully informed or using polyjuice potion or some other magic to change their appearance. This isn't a slight against you, it's standard procedure for any witch or wizard that asks for what you are asking for," Harry nodded showing that he understood what Bloodtooth was explaining to him. "You will be required to prick your finger with the dagger and let five drops fall into the bowl. The magic in the relic will tell what, if any, vaults belongs to a person." Bloodtooth finished and stepped back.

Harry, after thinking through what he was told and deciding that there was no reason not to do it, picked up the ornate blade the goblin gestured at and gently pricked his finger. As he watched the drop of blood makes it way to the flat rock smooth surface he thought about everything that had happened to bring him here. Was everything that had happened thus far part of some grand plan or was it all by chance? He didn't know but he promised himself that he would take more of an interest in his life and try to understand and plan for what might happen, instead of reacting once it was already in progress. His attention was quickly brought back to what he was doing when he heard his blood splash on the granite in front of him.

As Harry looked down at the granite tabletop that was quickly absorbing his blood he noticed writing form on the opposite smooth side. It read as such:

**Vaults owned by the one that bears this blood**:

_**Avery**_** (Heir by conquest)**

_**Black**_** (Heir by blood adoption)**

_**Carrow **_**(Heir by conquest)**

_**Crabbe **_**(Heir by conquest)**

_**Dolohov **_**(Heir by conquest)**

_**Goyle **_**(Heir by conquest)**

_**Karkaroff **_**(Heir by conquest)**

_**Lestrange **_**(Heir by conquest)**

_**Rabastsan**_

_**Lestrange **_**(Heir by conquest)**

_**Rodolphus**_

_**Bellatrix**_

_**Macnair **_**(Heir by conquest)**

_**Malfoy **_**(Heir by conquest)**

_**Mulciber **_**(Heir by conquest)**

_**Nott **_**(Heir by conquest)**

_**Pettigrew **_**(Heir by conquest)**

_**Potter**_

**Main**

**Trust** – two thousand gallons to be deposited into annually.

_**Prince **_**(Heir by conquest)**

_**Rookwood **_**(Heir by conquest)**

_**Rosier **_**(Heir by conquest)**

_**Snape **_**(Heir by conquest)**

_**Travers **_**(Heir by conquest)**

As Harry looked at the nineteen vaults that he was apparently the owner of, the only thing that he felt was shock. He thought that he had a lot of money when he first saw his vault the summer before he went shopping his first year and every year subsequently, but this was of a different matter entirely. Assuming that the families that owned these vaults were alive and in Azkaban, would they have a claim to them when their sentence was up? If there wasn't any problem with the claim, what was he to do with roughly nineteen vaults that were assumedly the same size of his vault if not larger? It wasn't as if he needed the money even though he had originally thought that the only vault under his name originally had been his trust vault. Not growing up in the wizarding world Harry, didn't know that most families set up a vault for their children once they reached eight or nine to start teaching them some financial responsibility, Harry's own trust vault had been done due to a stipulation in his parents will.

While Harry was trying to digest this he felt a pressure in his forehead, unknowingly raising his hand to the scar, causing a goblin to be sent for as the one in the room recognized what might be happening and wanted their specialist to check and confirm his suspicion before anything else was done.

The soul piece of Voldemort that was imbedded in Harry's scar was awoken by the claimants' ritual that Harry had just performed. He tried to connect with the originating piece of his soul but couldn't find it; the wraith was too weak to be detected, with the limited intelligence imbedded in the scar it was able to detect the marks of its followers. Realizing that it was attached to a powerful magical core the soul shard decided that it would take it over and subjugate the body that housed the soul it was attached to. Fortunately there was some block that was interfering with Lord Voldemort's ability to overcome Harry's soul. Voldemort realized that what he needed was more power, he quickly reached out and found the magic of his followers; cowardly traitors that didn't even come look for him after he was originally disposed of. He'd see that they get their just rewards but first he needed to deal with this body from which he found himself being expelled.

Lord Voldemort drew upon his waning powers and tapped into the magic of his followers, this was granted to him by virtue of the dark mark upon their person. When the various Death Eaters felt their marks reactivate they were excited, thinking their master, the leader of the proper pureblooded revolutionaries was back and things were going to be as they should. As they began to prepare themselves to apparate to his side, they began to feel a horrible pain that left them unable to move, much less use their magic.

It was commented later how odd it was that so many pureblood wizards from fine upstanding families had all collapsed. Regardless of what it was they were doing at the time, they just dropped dead from no noticeable cause that any of the healers could determine. This was a mystery that puzzled healers for many years, although a number of papers were written about the dangers of soul binding magics after the studies were done.

Amelia Bones was ready to hex someone insensate, how one person could be declared the heir of so many pureblood estates was something that needed to be looked into, but right now other things needed to be take care of. After looking at the list that Gringotts had presented to her, she wrote up a list of families for her aurors to visit. She turned her attention to the other file that had been brought in with the list of dead supposed and "former" death eater to the one that was filling her with rage. Sirius Black the supposed betrayer of the Potter family had never had a trial, or was even questioned under veritaserum according to the information that she had before her. She quickly sent a message to her aid to go to the records department and acquire all that he could about the trial of Sirius Black. When the aid came back and reported that their was no trial transcript in the Sirius Black matter, it was only his quick reflexes gained from auror training that allowed for him not to need to go to St. Mungos and have his head put on the right way round.

After learning of this, she sent a priority one message by owl to Dumbledore. Given how many positions the man held, it was the only way to insure that you got to speak with him in a timely fashion. Watching as the man settled himself and his garish robes in one of the chairs before her desk, Amelia wonder how much work it would take to get Dumbledore to speak plainly about what she wished to talk about instead of constantly countermanding the mans many dodges regarding questions he did not wish to answer. It was possible to have a semi-straight forward conversation with the man but it was best to make sure you had the entire day ahead of you for the attempt. Finally deciding she'd given enough time to the older wizard's comfort she began.

"If you're not aware the goblins sent us a missive to me regarding a miscarriage of justice regarding Sirius Black never getting a trial. Apparently he asked them to do this," Amelia said with a snort at the stupefied look on Dumbledore face. Calming herself she continued, "if the information bares out I plan to call on the Wizengamot to issue a order of temporary cession of hostilities until Black can be brought before the said august body and stand trial for his supposed crimes. Towards that effect, I have temporarily promoted auror trainee Nyphadora Tonks to probationary auror and partnered her with one of my most calm and stable seasoned aurors, Kingsley Shacklebolt, who is now showing her the ropes of real auror work in the hope that the two of them will be the first on call. Having family there will hopefully prevent Black from acting rashly and requiring lethal action to take place," As she sat and watched Dumbledore absorb all that she had told him she wondered how they had fallen so far as to deny a man the basic requirement under law just because of what his family name was. Seeing Dumbledore shake himself out of the funk that he seemed to have gone into after hearing what she had told him, Amelia continued, "due to the fact that you stood in stead as Mr. Potters guardian since his current one was illegally incarcerated in Azkaban, I assume that you will be the one to tell Remus Lupin as he is under your employ." As Dumbledore stood to leave Amelia let the other shoe drop.

"The goblins sent over this contract for a marriage between Harry James Potter and Ginvera Molly Weasley. Due to the fact that Harry was around fifteen months old and Ginvera was two months, not to mention that Harry's legal guardians were either dead or incarcerated, I'm led to believe that the contract is invalid if not illegal and as such I've asked someone from our legal section to take a look at it." Amelia finished her statement of wishing Dumbledore a good day, clearly dismissing him.

Dumbledore milled around the hallway outside of Amelia's office for a few beats before deciding that he needed to go to his office to think about what to do with the information that had been presented to him. Unfortunately for him, he forgot that he asked Severus and Minerva to attend to him after he returned from the ministry. Due to the wards that he set on his fireplace to alert them as soon as he returned, there was no way he was going to be able to avoid this conversation.

Knowing what he knew of Tom Riddle/Voldemort, Dumbledore believed that the prophesy indicated that Harry would be the exact opposite of the Dark Lord. To a certain extent this was true; in how Harry was polite and respectful even to those who would want to be his enemies. His taunting of Lucius Malfoy could be understood, given that even Dumbledore himself was known to taunt and enrage Voldemort when the two would meet in battle over the years.

However, Dumbledore was worried about how hard it might be for Harry to acclimate himself in the wizarding world after the banishment that was imposed upon him by Dumbledore for ten years. This lead to the elder wizard setting up a betrothal contract between the House of Potter and the House of Weasley using his position as Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot to be a binder and serve as Harry's head of house, as well as asking Molly to look for Harry and help guide him onto the train. This was done in part to give Harry a sense of love and family, which Dumbledore believed was imperative if Harry was to have any chance at defeating Voldemort. Unfortunately for all concerned, this was an illegal betrothal due to the fact that Harry's guardian Sirius Black had never gotten a trial and was still Harry's head of house de facto until Harry came of age, there by rendering the betrothal contract invalid or an illegal/criminal use of Dumbledore's position. The fallout from Dumbledore's decision would have far reaching consequences, once everything shook itself out.

Albus Dumbledore sat in his office waiting for two of his professors to report, Minerva McGonagoll and Severus Snape, his two most trusted confidents. Minerva because she was Harry's head of house and by virtue of the person who accompanied Harry, over his objections, to his meeting with the goblins; and Severus, due to his being a former death eater would be in a position to speculate as to what his former cohorts reaction to things would be better than Albus. Also Albus fancied Severus somewhat; his dark glowering persona reminded him at times of his relationship with Gellert. As Albus started to sink into memories of those happier days, the door to his office opened up. Standing before him were the two people whom he had asked to speak with.

"Thank you for answering my call so swiftly," Dumbledore said once Minerva and Severus were seated before him, both professors nodded at him, wondering why they had been summoned.

McGonagoll had a lot to think about in the past few days; Starting from when her quidditch team chewed her out, to what had led up to today. McGonagoll had been shown that the way she had been living her life, blindly following Dumbledore just because of his reputation and how much magical power he could command, made her seem like some of her more moon eyed students ***cough*** Lavender Brown ***cough***. She'd seen how the young witch would get around the object of her interest such as those frauds Lockheart and Trelawney; not letting anything come between what she believed the person to be regardless of the opposing evidence. The parallels McGonagoll had begun to draw with how she led her life in relation to some of her students saddened and horrified her. As she got ready to listen to whatever the Headmaster had to say, she made a note to talk to Miss Granger about the path the young witch was going down concerning her blindly following authority figures.

"I called the two of you here today in order to help me brainstorm on how to regain control in setting Harry on the path that he needs to be on." Dumbledore informed McGonagoll and Snape. Unfortunately for him, his comments didn't have the hoped for response from either of his subordinates. Snape started in on a vitriolic rant about everyone moving Heaven and Earth for Saint Potter and other tangents involving Harry requiring everyone that he comes into contact with treating him in the manner that Draco tries to get people to act. His rant was surprisingly truncated by McGonagoll.

"Shut up Severus," Minerva barked, startling both men. "If I hear another word out of you that disparages my Gryffindors without any proof whatsoever to back it up I have no problem in transfiguring you into something more fitting, such as a slug or a bat. Furthermore from this day forward I have every intention of treating the Slytherins the same way you treat my Gryffindor's. I have no problem in docking points off of students and assigning them detention for breathing too loud or sitting next to students from other houses, or any of the other superfluous reasons you've come up with to constantly give Slytherin an artificial lead in the race to the house cup."

When Dumbledore tried to calm her down, Minerva turned her attention to him, "don't worry Minerva I have someone who is keeping an eye of Harry, and reporting how he's doing to me! Does this sound familiar to you? Would you be surprised to know that Harry's quidditch team came to me a few days ago to ask me why isn't anyone at the very least trying to find out what Harry is feeling, if not offering him a more protective living arrangement such as our dignitary quarters? I was unable to answer them so they left. It was rather shaming hearing Angelina comment to Ms. Spinet and Ms. Bell that apparently Mr. Weasley and Ms. Granger are right, and I don't really care about the well being of my students after all. Well I tell both of you right now, even if I have to resign my Deputy Headmistress duties, from now on I'm putting the welfare of my students first. If you don't like that Albus speak up and I'll tender my head of house resignation forthwith." Realizing that in the course of her rant she had stood, Minerva, calming, sat down adjusting her robes as she did so.

Dubledore looked as though he tasted the overwhelming sourness of the lemon drops that he always offered to everyone; his mouth was pursed and his eyes were drawn in. He thought that Minerva, of all people, having gone through the war herself, would understand the need for reformation as well as the attempt to try to lure as many souls away from the dark as they could, which is what he saw that he was doing in Severus' case. Never mind that until Harry had come to Hogwarts, Slytherin under Severus' stewardship had led to no other house winning the house cup no matter how well the other houses collectively did. He quickly realized that he would have to do something about the conflict between the two houses.

**A/N: **Don't forget to review; tell me what you think of the fic.; if its going in the right direction ..


	5. Weasley Plots and Plans

**Chapter 5**

William Weasley, the only child of Arthur and Molly Weasley to have an alliterative name (if you disregard his middle name), something he always found annoying, was living the life that he wanted to live. While it was good to see his parents and siblings, he was glad to have them back in Britain, if his mother "subtlety" tried to talk about all of the job opportunities that were available to Percy, with him graduating as head boy this year and indirectly say that Bill still had time to take advantage of them too, again, he might have hexed her. Bad enough that she was constantly owling him about it, living that close to his mother would probably have him in Azkaban for constantly hexing her. Not that he didn't love her, but she seemed to view all of her children as the cute first years they once were, not the adult they had or were grown/growing into.

While he was not thrilled about their penchant for jokes and wasn't so sure that their secret dream of owning their own joke shop was entirely feasible with Zonko's as a competitor, never mind that his family's financial straits would most likely hinder them finding a backer, he was proud of his brothers for finding what they wanted in life so soon. It took him almost all of his time at Hogwarts to decide that he wanted to be a curse breaker. Of course some of this had to do with his aimless search just for a job that was far away enough from his mother. Not that he disliked his job; the goblins paid him a workable fee, plus a percentage of any treasure he finds on his curse breaking duties. The fact that he tangled with deadly traps and curses were just a few of the things that attracted him to the job; he would never be happy back behind a desk, he needed to be out and using everything in him to do his job to the fullest. He hoped that all of his siblings found similar things for what they did to make a living.

This however was different; he had gotten a letter from his twin brothers. They were of the opinion that their mother was trying to harm the-boy-who-lived. Given that most of his family cared for Harry, he was curious as to what his brothers had to say about him. Hoping that they were being serious, Bill sat down to read his brothers letter.

"To our eldest and bestest brother," Bill rolled his eyes upon reading that, "we come to you with some shameful news, unsolicited reports have come to us to suggest that our mother, if not other members of our family, have been embezzling money from Harry's vault using the key that he loaned mum in order for her to do some 'last minute school shopping for whatever he might have missed when he was wandering lost in Diagon Alley for a couple of weeks' to use mum's terms. We're worried, given mum, Percy and Ron's reaction when they saw Harry's vault last year when we went to the vaults last year in order to do our school shopping. The fact that Lockhart was charging for his autograph seemed to make mum annoyed, too when he gave Harry his complete works pre-signed for free, and Harry just gave them away to Ginny, then went and bought his own copies, we assume unsigned. We're worried that mum might do something that will bring shame on the Weasley name with her obsession with how little money the Weasley have compared to other families. We hope you are able to do a little poking around and find out whether our suspicions are justifiable our not, if for no other reason than the Weasley family owes Harry a life debt due to his saving our little Ginny. Hope all is well with you.

Love from your favorite twin brothers,

Gred and Forge."

As Bill put down the letter he had just finished reading he reached for the fire whiskey, this letter certainly required it in order to digest it. He had always been aware of the fact that his mother didn't look too kindly upon his father occupation, always finding other more lucrative jobs that he could take instead in order to get Molly Weasley in the lifestyle she thinks she should live.

Just looking at how she raises him and his siblings; if you do what she wants without question or complaint she heaps praise and adulation upon you, but the first time you step out and do something that Molly sees as bringing shame upon her she screams and rants, sends howlers, what ever she feels necessary to express her disapproval, regardless of who might hear and how she might make her children, husband, random stranger feel while she vents her spleen. He could remember his mother talking about how she always thought she was meant for a better life than this while his father was away at work. He could admit that while his mother was needed at home to look after his siblings for most of his life, ever since Fred and George had gone to Hogwarts she could have at the vary least taken a part time job to alleviate the financial pressure raising seven children must put on a one income household. If only their pride would let their children help them. He knew that both he and Charlie had offered to send money home to their parents, an offer that was politely but firmly refused. That being the case either his father had refused from both of them by virtue of his being the head of house Weasley, or his mother didn't want to take their money for some reason. Although, it seemed if his brothers' letter held any truth, she didn't have any trouble taking money from virtual strangers.

The next day Bill went into Gringotts Egypt, it was somewhat of a surprise to see him there to be honest. Not that he had any of the racial hatred that most purebloods had against magical creatures; however the goblins seeming dislike of wizards (due to how they were treated by a large majority) made it best for everyone that the wizards and witches that worked under them stay away unless it was absolutely necessary. Also given that his job was little more than tomb raiding, albeit with a nice title; all he usually did was attach a portkey to the treasure his team found and port it to the gringotts branch that had commissioned his teams services.

Bill went to his goblin liaison, Axegrinder and asked if he could see the information on his family's vault, he was led to a small antechamber off of Axegringer's office. After a few minutes wait the file on his family's vault(s) was brought to the room.

Bill was shocked at what he saw, there were large deposits in a vault set up by his mother this year with additional signatures from his brother, Percy, and his sister, Ginny. From the time it was open to now there seemed to be a 200% increase in the deposits in the vault, bringing the balance to close to five thousand gallons. Bill couldn't even begin to understand where his mother had gotten the money to start up this vault, not to mention why she keep it from his father, given that he was sure that his father wouldn't do something so sneaky as what this seemed to be. He walked to the door and pressed the indentation that would summon a goblin. When the goblin appeared Bill asked his question.

"Where did Mum get the money to open this vault?" Bill asked, dread pooling in his stomach. He was starting to wish his brothers had never sent him that owl. Figuring it to be another prank or plot of his brothers he gamely went along with their request to look up the banking history of their family, knowing that they would never want to hurt anyone in the family, ever. What he had actually found out had nearly brought him to tears. His mind started whirling trying to figure out if anyone else in his family might know what their mother was doing and was complacent in it. The twins, and Charlie, he dismissed immediately knowing that they were to independent to steal out right in order to improve their financial straights; Charlie working at the dragon reserve in order to further his goal of getting his beast masters license while the twins were working hard away in secrecy (so they thought) in order to open a joke shop better than Zonko's; and from what he found when he went snooping through the twins things this past summer when they came to visit him, he was planning for them to have the premier joke store when his children went to Hogwarts, not that that wasn't many years in the future, being a cursebreaker didn't let you go on too many dates. Not that their weren't interested parties when it was his turn to go into town to refurbish their supplies, he was just to focused on his duties to pay attention to/have any time for romantic entanglements.

Looking further into the due amounts of deposits, he found that the reason that his mother was able to do this was to a betrothal contract signed between his mother and Dumbledore in his head of the Wizengamot position, letting him be Harry's head of house de facto. Looking at how much money his mum had embezzled, Bill realized that this contract must have been set up years before Harry was even made aware of the wizarding world; a surprising thing that Bill noticed was that Sirius Black was still noted and Harry's godfather. Bill would think that the conviction of Black would cause him to lose guardianship of the son of the people he betrayed. Thinking about all of this, Bill took some of the parchment and a quill that was placed in the room for that purpose and began to make notes.

This is what he discovered; his mother had a vault that seemed to grow somewhere between 100 to 200% per year since it had been opened. Its standing balance was G 36000 now. This concerned Bill quit a bit considering how poor he remembered his family being growing up. Where had all of this money came from and whether it was legal for his mother to own it was at the forefront of his mind. He also found it interesting that Percy and Ginny were added on as co-signatures. While he was pleased to know that his twin brothers and Ron weren't included in this scheme, what he didn't know was that if Ron had anything even resembling tact and an ability not to blab everything to the first person he talked to about the financial windfall his family was coming into, then he would have been included.

Writing a concise summary to what he had figured out Bill sat at his desk with a heavy heart. If he did what he knew he should he would be destroying at the very least his own family, who knows what this would do to Harry or anyone else caught in it's snare. However, his father had raised all of his children knowing right from wrong. While it would appear that the lesson didn't hold with some of his siblings, it held true with Bill, he wouldn't be able to look anyone in the face knowing that he knew someone was perpetuating a long term crime, and had evidence of it, and didn't turn it over the to proper authorities. The fact that it was his family made it painful but Bill had to do it in order not to lose himself.

Jorghan Peterson, the son of a British wizard and a German Witch, was a mid-level clerk in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. His job, for the most part, was to analysis whatever the complaint or quire that crossed his desk and then send it off to whomever would be the best person to deal with it. Not that he was the only person in the DMLE to do this, but since his was the desk that Bill Weasley's missive came to, he is the wizard we will turn our attention to.

Peterson was sitting in his cubical in the DMLE casting a _**tempus**_ to see how much longer he had until his lunch break, when a paper airplane alighted itself upon his desk. After it unfolded itself Peterson was able to read that the memo had to do with someone potentially stealing money from the Boy-Who-Lived's vault and gringotts. All thoughts of his upcoming lunch break fading from his mind, Peterson quickly got a piece of parchment and a quill, with his wand he smoothed out the letter and started to read it.

One of the things that the DMLE taught all of its employees was how to quickly scan through a message and get to the heart of it. Peterson was aghast at what he thought he had read; that someone was stealing from the boy-who-lived gringotts vault was very troubling. The fact that a member of the family that was potentially doing the stealing sent a message confessing to the crime made him decide that he needed more senior help in determining what to do with the information that he was given.

Michael Watson, while not a senior Auror, was a hard working and competent one; the perfect one for Peterson to take his problem to. Peterson quickly knocked on the edge of Watson's cubical and waited for Watson to acknowledge him.

Watson quickly read the memo that Peterson handed him. After reading it his wand shot out from a holder on his wrist. Waving the wand over the paper he made a satisfactory face as it shone a light blue. After half a dozen more spells, that Peterson was memorizing as he watched, Watson put his wand down on his desk and turned to Peterson.

"Who sent this to you?" Watson asked. When Peterson replied that it bore the seal of Gringotts and without further testing that he didn't think was needed that's were it seemed to come from. Watson nodded both agreeing with his subordinate and impressed with his reasoning. Upon opening the missive, Waston was shocked with what he was reading. To think that the Weasley family was stealing from Harry Potter, this would be the scandal of the ages.

As Watson read on he was shocked at what looked like a multi-tiered conspiracy listed within. While Watson could be forgiven for hyperbole, what the memo stated seemed more farfetched than if it had said that Harry Potter had died at what was at Hogwarts right now was a brilliantly crafted inferi and not a living breathing boy (something Watson knew some of the Unspeakables wanted to test and find out first hand). Checking to see if all of the information was concrete Watson turned his attention back to Peterson.

"Good man Peterson, I'll get some of our best aurors on this straight away." While Peterson felt pride at the acknowledgement he was getting from his superior, he still wondered about some of it. Not being able to figure it out just by his ponderings, he decided to ask.

"Are we really going to investigate the Weasley family?" Peterson asked. It's not as if he was questioning a superior, not really, it was just with the way most people viewed the Weasley family, this was impossible; pureblooded light sided family, reputed to be deep with Dumbledore, how could any of what Gringotts sent over be true? Peterson was just about to voice the idea that instead of revolting every couple of centuries, the goblins were trying a new tact of sending fraudulent messages out in order to insight panic when, Watson replied.

"We'll follow what evidence is presented until new evidence is unearthed." Seeing the look of disbelief that still was on Peterson's face Watson decided to try to calm him down.

"Now I know you came on after You-Know-Who was taken care of but trust me; the Imperious curse is subtle and insidious and has affected some truly great wizards. If this isn't a hoax, like I suspect, then I hope that all it is, is a truly well casted Imperious, and as soon as we treat which ever Weasley's are under it, things will go back to normal." Seeing his subordinate relax Watson decided not to mention that if the information was as it looked like that the Kneazle was true among the snidgets. He decided that someone higher then he would have to make that call.

Albus Dumbledore was in quite a state of shock. His "conversation", if it could be called that, with his deputy didn't go anywhere near what he had hoped it would. Where as before Harry Potter had arrived at Hogwarts, his and Minerva's interactions had gone, by and large, in a fairly easy going fashion where he would explain why, what ever complaint Minerva had against the Slytherin was the best thing to do about it would be to drop it lest they turn to the dark in an effort to find people who understand and think like them.

What Albus didn't understand was that if you coddled people, their attitude will have very little reason to change. Those witches and wizards who where raised to see themselves as better and all others as inferiors, to be used on their way to the top, would just lead to another dark lord coming up when they get out into the real world and learn that people weren't going to bend to their every whim when they threw debilitating curses around. He had hoped the rest of his week was going to go smoothly, the owl he had just gotten suggested anything but that, he supposed the only saving grace was that it wasn't delivered as a howler during mealtime.

Dumbledore was happy that Snape had survived; he suspected that the Hogwarts wards were what keep Severus from succumbing to the fate that had befallen his former comrades. When asked if he could check Severus' dark mark Albus was met with a rather brusque refusal. Albus supposed that his timing was not of the best asking right after informing the man of so many deaths, while he was trying to deal with Minerva's chastisment. Dumbledore decided that he would come back and attempt to solve his puzzle at a better time.

Andromeda Tonks; husband of Ted, mother of Nyphadora, was a hard working witch. While the stigma of being a woman in the workforce is strained for witches in general, being from one of the dark wizarding families in recent memory, even if you didn't follow their tenants, made finding work difficult to impossible. Marrying a muggleborn wizard, there by marrying a muggle in the mind of most of her family's social circle made it even worse. Luckily for her she was able to find a law firm run by a halfblood with enough ties to the muggle world that she could work in the magical world, from where she came from and felt more comfortable in, that when a muggle case came up she didn't mind pitching in to help out.

It was a seasonable day when everything changed for her and her family. Not too many clouds in the sky, pleasant temperatures, little to no humidity; perfect quidditch weather as her cousin's best friend was heard to comment frequently. However, there would soon be larger concerns than the standings of the quidditch league for her to focus on by the end of the day.

Around lunch time she got an owl from Gringotts asking her to visit at her earliest opportunity. This surprised her, given that with her family situation she and her husband did most of their banking at a muggle bank a couple of blocks away from their house. They did go to Gringotts, mostly due to things involving Nymphadora, and various wills that they were listed in. With Nymphadora out of Hogwarts and the twelve years of peace they've been having, this missive was met with shock and alarm, in part due to the fact that Sirius had broken out of Azkaban somehow and was traipsing around Scotland, if the rumors she had heard from Nymphadora were anything to go by. If she didn't know that her daughter wouldn't speak to her if she did it, she would have stormed into Amelia's office and demanded to know what her Auror trainers thought they were doing, letting her Nymphadora get treated the way she was just due to who some of her relatives unfortunately were.

Andromeda arrived, like she had learned from Ted, ten minutes early to her meeting with Gringotts. As Ted had explained it; better to arrive early and throw off the people who you are meeting with, especially if you think they might be planning to do you a bad turn. With the people that make up her family that was definitely a consideration, so her waiting in an antechamber an hour earlier than her appointment was set for was just good business sense.

Going up to the counter she reviewed everything that she learned from Uncle Orion. While Aunt Walburga was, to put it lightly, an out of her mind bitch; Uncle Orion was quite pleasant if you got to him before he started into the elf made wine after dinner. It was from him that Andromeda learned how to properly be a Black; while we are better then everyone else, it is not always necessary to rub that fact into everyone's face every time you meet them. As she got to the counter, right before she announced herself, the goblin ahead of her looked up and pinned her with a suspicious gaze.

"What does the fallen princess of the Black family want with us lowly goblins", it asked with a suspicious sneer on its face. It was all Andromeda could do not to hunt down her remaining family and curse them in oblivion for the way they were apparently still treating goblins. She and Ted had gotten a flat together, after she was expelled from the Black family for starting a relationship with another man after her family had contracted her to be married to Lucius Malfoy, in doing this she was also cut off from any monetary compensation from her former family. While she was sorry for the fact that her sister Narcissa was made to shoulder her burden, she wouldn't give up the life she had now for any amount of money or prestige. She remembered the talks she would have with Sirius about what they would do with their life after they got away from their overbearing families; she guessed they won him over to their way of thinking after all. She brought herself out of her reminiscing to address the goblin.

"I would like to have a meeting with the goblin, Dirksmith, in my position as the Potter regent", she replied passing over the necessary parchment to support her claim. It was quite a surprise to her to get the owl she did three days ago asking her to come before the Wizengamot to discuss a family matter. Picking out her most dignified set of robes she presented herself in front of the Wizengamot. The meeting couldn't have gone more differently then she had anticipated.

McGonagall had stirred up a hornets nest, not caring if she made foe out of friend, she was determined to take care of the last Potter as she was asked to before they went into hiding. This was a shock to her, after her husband had died in one of the skirmishes that led up to the war against You-Know-Who it was Dumbledore's friendship and guidance that had allowed her to get her feet under her and her head on straight enough to be a productive member of society again. Many days she would think of her life before You-Know-Who's supporters had killed her Brian, with emotions ranging from bliss for what they had together to sorrow for what she lost, and nearly ever emotion in between. Through all of that time Albus was their for her when ever she need someone; helping her combat the slight case of alcoholism that she had developed, giving her a job and a way to focus her attention on helping people and not just wallowing in grief. Mostly he was just there for her; as a shoulder to cry on and a support to lean on. The idea that he had fallen so far from that man hurt her, but looking at the facts before her the proof was self evident.

As she had told Albus and Snape, she would do her duty to her house first and foremost. This meant in Harry's case to help with training him in his heritage. She had sent a missive to the goblins asking for their help with this, they had replied back that it would take some time due to checks that where being done to all of the high profile accounts after some people from the DMLE had asked for their help; which they had provided for a fee. This was, unfortunately, taking almost all of their time as of late. They sent a reply back stating that they would be able to accommodate her no earlier than two weeks from now. Thinking that it was just saber rattling from the Goblins she wrote back a note agreeing with the stated terms. The news she was soon to get would calm her concerns greatly, if potentially raise other ones.

Andromeda was about ready to live up to her family's dark reputation; she couldn't believe what she was reading. To think that Harry Potter; the savior of the wizarding world had been treated in such a disreputable fashion, why her ancestors might get their wish and they'd reinstate muggle hunting as a national pastime if this ever had gotten out to the general public. Luckily for all concerned very few, if any, people would get their eyes on the file she was currently reading.

After she met with a goblin who was part of family affairs named Dirksmith who took her to a private room that had the information that she requested about the Potter family vaults. In the files it was stated that along with the fees for the upkeep of the various properties that Harry owned and his tuition to Hogwarts he was paying out of his vault, he appeared to also be paying the mortgage for No. 4 Privet Dr..

Also it would seem that the Weasley family, or at the very least Molly was getting a monthly stipend from the Potter account regarding some unnamed task, the account summary she'd gotten had just said "incidentals" under what Molly was being paid for. She quickly jotted this down on some parchment she had to the right of her to look into what, if any money the Dursleys and Weasleys had been given from the Potter account and who authorized it. She also made a note to forward what she found to the DMLE, perhaps through her daughter's trainer, what was the man's name, Shacklebolt or something. A rather unfortunate name admittedly, given his ancestry, but she'd heard worst, growing up in the Black family, they seemed to offset their darker tendencies with slightly absurd, mostly astrologically based names.

As she looked into her schedule of the week ahead, Andromeda started composing a letter to Harry using a dicta quill as her hands were busy. The letter just informed Harry that by virtue of his parent's will she was named his magical guardian and if he had any problems or concerns that he didn't feel were to fall under the remit of a teacher he was welcome to send them to her and she would be happy to look into it for him. She didn't want to add too much, given that she planned to go over everything in person with Harry after she met him, in order to get a better picture of him and how to help the child of her two good friends.

As Andromeda looked upon the castle she had spent seven years in, a momentary pain of homesickness enveloped her. Her parents being dark pureblood supremacy proponents, the only person she had besides Ted, that viewed the world as she did, was her cousin Sirius, at least she had thought. The crowing of Aunt Walburga when Sirius was captured for betraying the Potters and killing Pettigrew and all of those muggles left her feeling adrift, she decided then that the wizarding world wasn't worth it anymore, with the Potters dead and baby Harry in a "secret safe location" according to Albus. Now that she knows what she does about Harry's home life, she wished she had a time turner so she could give Harry a better upbringing. Schooling her thoughts, she sent a patronus to Hagrid informing him that she was at the gate ready to be admitted. While she waited she schooled her features and prepared her arguments for the coming meeting.

Albus Dumbledore was not looking forward to this meeting; the year had enough troubles for him to deal with. A mass murderer out for his most high profile student, his right hand starting to think for herself, his potion master trying to come up with manners to expose his defense professor's secret; really what else could go wrong? Dumbledore would look back on what happened and see this moment as the start of everything going south in his plans.

Minerva McGonagall was surprisingly looking forward to the meeting she was being requested for. She had taken a long look at how she had been treating her students and felt ashamed of herself. While letting someone who genuinely knows better than you handle a problem is a perfectly logical action, the best thing to do even then is to "watch over their shoulder" to make sure what is happening is what you expected/planned to happen. Given how long she had let Albus run pell-mell all these years she was ready for what ever reparations she had to pay for her neglect of those under her charge.

Severus Snape was in quite a temper; first Albus curtails his discipline of the other houses, then the Potter spawn starts improving leaps and bounds ahead of his contemporaries in Potions; even that mudblood Granger was falling behind Potter in her potion making abilities. What was going to happen next; Black attack Hogwarts and that 'creature' Lupin captures him and gets Snape's rightful rewards and accolades? He couldn't let that happen, whatever it takes. He would have to think about how to make things go the correct path after this meeting he was being summoned to concluded.

As Andromeda Tonks entered Albus' office she was surprised at how little had changed since the last time she had been there to deal with something that Nymphadora had been involved in. The former headmasters still acted as though they were asleep while hoping to overhear what ever they could, the ratty (don't tell it that) sorting hat was still sitting on a ledge supposedly composing next years sorting song, Fawkes was sitting on his perch overlooking the office. Everything just as it always was. While it was nice to reminisce it was time to get down to business, she turned and addressed Dumbledore, McGonagall and Snape.

"I come as regent for my lord Harry James Potter-Black." Ignoring Albus' eyes widen she continued, "I come to tell you that the policies of this school of treating any students in a different fashion just because they are a reminder of someone you went to school with or taught are to come to an end." As she said this Andromeda put down a piece of parchment with the terms of the contract she had written upon Harry's behalf, which by using still remembered _Black_mailing tricks she'd gotten them to sign.

"Before you lies a contract that was written up on my behalf and signed by the majority of the Governors of Hogwarts, it states within that by virtue of the charter of Hogwarts that was set up by the founders any and all students that pass through this school are to be treated with an equal and non-biased manner by all residents within. Any teachers that are found wanting will be receiving a number of different penalties depending upon the transaction." As Andromeda stepped back she quickly cast a cribbing spell to make copies of the contract, one for herself and two others for Dumbledore and McGonagall as Harry's Headmaster and Head of House respectively.

"Be aware, both of you. I am quit serious about this and have already contacted my daughter's trainer with this information. He subsequently got in contact with Amelia Bones and she floo'd me just last week to inform me that she was thinking of putting a task force together to look at how much of a rehabilitation program having Severus working at Hogwarts actually turned out to be, so I hope you've been behaving as the Hogwarts charter dictates." This last statement was directed towards Snape who had paled so much, if you didn't know any better, you'd have thought he was a ghost. Dumbledore tried to get Andromeda to recant what she had just said when she let another bomb fall on him.

You should know that I've become aware of what I've told you due to the fact that Lucius has been sending me owls taunting what he's been able to get away with over the years since Harry's gotten the appellate "The Boy Who Lived" and now. He seems quite pleased that he's been able to pull the wool over the eyes of the majority of wizarding Britain. He is rather overjoyed at how there is a draught of potion practitioners as well as aurors since Severus has begun teaching." Seeing Dumbledore start to protest her last statement, Andromeda reached inside her cloak and withdrew a scroll that she laid on Albus' desk.

"On that scroll is a list of jobs the alumni of Hogwarts have held since the mid-fifties. If you read it you will note that since roughly 1983 there has been a severe drop in both auror and healing candidates over the past decade. Now I'm not saying that Severus is totally responsible for that, but the evidence suggests that he has a hand in it." The look on Albus' face as McGonagall tore into him and Snape had Andromeda wishing she had her daughter's metamorphic skills as she fought to keep a straight face, luckily she succeeded. After McGonagall finished screaming at him and Severus, Andromeda spoke up again.

"This is a notice from the Board of Governors telling you that Severus Snape is under review. An inquisitor will be arriving first of the month in order to see if any of the other professors have fallen past the level of what is expected of a Hogwarts professor. The inquisitor will be here a minimum three months before a review is presented to us. At that time the Hogwarts' Board of Governors will decide if said inquisitor is still needed at their post or if whatever changes the inquisitor has suggested are taken as a vote that requires a two-thirds majority before it is to be passed and posted anywhere. Be sure to inform your staff to be ready to assist the inquisitor in whatever is asked of them as we all strive to return Hogwarts to its glory." Andromeda finished speaking and sat down.

Dumbledore stared off into space, trying to figure out what his next move would be. So many of his plans and schemes for the greater good had been disrupted by what was just said here that he didn't know if any of them where even repairable. He would speak with Severus and explain to him how they must be careful going forth in their molding and strengthening of Harry. Dumbledore was so concerned with the greater good that he didn't think what other ways to achieve the same goals were available; he had his plan since he detected the soul shard and as the years progressed he went from thinking that Harry's death was a last resort to it being the only way to make sure Tom and his message were dead for good. Re-reading the contract he noticed that if he didn't agree with the stated terms then he would be temporarily to permanently removed as headmaster of Hogwarts for the duration of the inquisitor's appointment. With his hands metaphorically tied behind his back Dumbledore picked up a quill. As it was hovering over the parchment he was interrupted by his potion master.

"I'm not allowed award or dismiss points, nor am I allowed to set penalties' for detentions. I won't stand for this; no other professor has such a restriction applied upon them." He was about to continue, when the frigid cold voice of Andromeda broke his rant before he really got started.

"No other professors are so weak in moral fiber that they use their position to carry out a vendetta against a DEAD MAN!" Andromeda screamed the last two worlds getting into Snape's face. She had a vaguely cunning look on her face appropriate of the daughter of the Blacks, "Oh yes Severus, I know all about your vendetta against James Potter through his son, how you torment and discipline him past what would be considered appropriate for what the offense might be." Seeing the look of either question or shock on the faces of the other people in the office Andromeda decided to explain a bit. "Since we don't get along, even though we are supposedly family, _dear_ Lucius enjoys sending me updates on Harry's progress. I'll admit to finding it quite strange that he knows that I was in line to be one of Harry's guardians since the last I knew he wasn't listed in James or Lily's will in any way shape or form." Seeing the guilty look on Albus as he shot a look at Snape who had a placid look on his face in contrast to Minerva's look of rage, this cleared some things up for Andromeda.

After a good hour of some of the hardest negotiation that Dumbledore had ever been a part of, the following concessions were reached. Snape would be put under restriction by a charm put upon him that would monitor his behavior and give daily updates to McGonagall in her Deputy Headmistress role, as well as a designated representative of the Board of Governors. Starting next year a second potion professor would be hired to either replace Severus or at the very least teach up to the third year of potions school wide so the people who actually have a talent at potions aren't run out of the course by Snape's abrupt teaching style until they develop a thicker skin. Any comment that Severus makes that lambasted any students' parents, race, and creed or blood affiliation will be a cause of immediate dismissal. Furthermore the students would be under a similar set of rules that state that any blood based taunting would be responded to with punishment up to being expelled from school. Albus, if he was honest with himself, would agree that these steps needed to be taken, but he thought that enforcing them would be near to impossible, with the current pureblood bloc in place.

As Dumbledore and Andromeda got up for what the ancient wizard thought was Andromeda finally leaving his office, she instead snapped her fingers and a house elf appeared. Sitting down in trepidation, Albus watched as Andromeda flipped through the file, finding it to her liking she nodded her head and looked up at Dumbledore.

"Sorry about not mentioning this before, I wasn't sure that I would have time for it when I was initialing planning this meeting," Andromeda stated as she quickly casted a _geminio_ charm on the scroll and banish two copies to Minerva and Severus, "this is something the goblins asked me to take care of when they heard I was coming to talk to you about Mr. Potter."

In reading what was put before him, Dumbledore had turned the color of old porridge. He, and anyone else that had made fraudulent withdrawals from any vault that the goblins had discovered was being charged with the recalling of whatever funds they had removed from the vault plus a surcharge of five to ten present of the debt depending on the severity of the illegal withdrawal. This was a problem for Dumbledore and Snape; Dumbledore believing that Harry was a dead man walking had set up a fraudulent marriage contract between Harry and Ginevra that came with a bride price two and a half times over the normal amount. Dumbledore was sure if his doing this was ever found out by Harry he could appeal to the boy's deep and abiding friendship with the family Dumbledore believed he saw as a surrogate, little did he know that Harry hadn't spent enough time with the family as a whole to develop those feelings, likewise he was unaware of the fact that Molly had been using the betrothal contract to embezzle money out of Harry's vault into one she set up in her name independent of her family's knowledge.

Hermione came down from her dorm with her arms full of text books. She had retreated up there to get away from her classmates; namely Ron's constant questioning of her schedule this year. She was overjoyed at being able to put her brain to its full potential by taking all of the classes available to her. While she liked certain classes more than others (Arithmancy and Ancient Runes) to others (Divination) she enjoyed the ability to learn as much as she could. What did sleep matter if she was getting the most out of her Hogwarts experience. If certain people couldn't understand that ***Ron*** that was their loss. She stopped in surprise at what she was viewing before her.

As various levels of political intrigue were going on around him, Harry was trying to focus on something he could control. After owling the goblins in order to find out how much money he had available to use, Harry was looking for a new broom after the Dementors had caused the destruction of his beloved Nimbus 2000 in the match against hufflepuff. While he appreciated Cedric's wish for a rematch he believed the older boy won fair and square. Anyways, until he managed to procure another broom he wouldn't be playing any position against anyone, he returned his focus to the copy of which broomstick that was spread out before him. As he patted the broken pieces of his Nimbus 2000 as he scoured the pages before him, little did he know his problem was already solved.

"Harry, what are you doing?" Hermione asked as she came upon her best friend. Scattered around him was, not as she suspected some advance defense book or extra credit project, but what looked like numerous catalogs. As Harry looked up he had a brilliant smile on his face, not what one would suspect someone who had reputedly the darkest wizard short of Voldemort after them to sport. Wondering of her best friend had finally snapped under the strain he had been working under for the last two years, and feeling somewhat guilty for her part in adding to that guilt last year, with pain in her heart, she sat down and picked up one of the catalogs on the table before her, after making space for her books and parchment, which Harry help her with.

"Best broomsticks of Europe and Asia." Hermione read off the pamphlet. Suddenly what Harry was doing became clear to her. In her stressed state over her studies she never gave any thought to the fact that to stay on the intramural team at Hogwarts, Harry would need to procure a new broom. She hoped that he wasn't forsaking his studies for the game; Harry had taken her aside before the basilisk incident and asked her to lighten up on her distain of quidditch. She still went to Harry's games, however due to her advanced school load she spent most of the game with her nose in a book and a quill in her hand hoping to get some assignments for one of her classes closer to completion during the lull in the game. While the die hard quidditch enthusiasts would say their was no such thing as a lull in the game, Hermione was of the opinion that given whomever catches the snitch wins the game that the rest of the players were superfluous and until the snitch was sighted they were just making time in the air. Considering that the average time of a game seemed to be roughly two hours she usually got somewhere between two-thirds to a full revision of a paper for one of her classes during each of Harry's match's thus far. She had found it difficult to study with those dementors so close, but reminded herself that they were there to keep Harry safe, and for that she would weather any reasonable discomfort for the safety of her friend.

Harry smiled as he finished signing his name on the order form; digging his Gringotts key out of his bag he placed it in the designated space on the order form. As the parchment finished glowing Harry noticed that in front of him was what looked like a copy of the order form plus a receipt that stated Harry Potter had bought one Zeus' Lightning from the Olympic broom company in Larisa, Greece, for the price of two thousand gallons plus tax and s/h. His surprise at the increases in price from what was posted on the form was replaced by understanding as he saw that the additional charge was added due to how much the portkey cost to transport it to Britain before owling it to him. Pleased with the transaction, Harry rolled up the parchment and put it in his satchel. Seeing Hermione looking at him he explained.

"Bought a broom to replace the one the tree broke." At Hermione's look of comprehension Harry joked, "Should probably keep anything capable of flight away from that menace." Realizing Harry was talking about his and Ronald's rather spectacular, if somewhat illegal, entrance to Hogwarts last year, Hermione rolled her eyes and returned to her work happy with the knowledge that Harry wasn't letting the fact that Black was after him keep his spirits down.

On Christmas day Harry was surprised to see that he had two brooms in his pile of presents along with the normal gifts from Ron, Hermione and the Weasley parents, including the annual Christmas sweater

What the quidditch team had done was wonderful and even if the adoption plan fell through just the fact that they put so much effort into trying to help him made him feel that he truly had a family for the first time in quite a while. Looking through his gifts to make sure that he didn't miss anything, Harry was touched by the various Zonko pranks from the twins and Lee plus the few new pieces of clothes from the chaser line. Unlike most boys his age Harry appreciated that clothes more than anything else, given the immense hand-me-downs from his cousin he'd worn all his life. However after the judicial use of a resizing charm by the chaser line during Ravenclaw and Hufflepuffs match, Harry felt until now, that while he didn't have clothes that he had picked out himself at least his clothes didn't make him look like some kind of homeless vagrant when he went without his robes in the wizarding world. Not that it was that often that it happened, but sometimes on a hot day it was nice to not wear such a heavy robe.

Hermione was shocked at Harry's reaction to her notifying a teacher about the unknown broom that Harry had gotten. It was quit embarrassing to find Professor McGonagall; tell her what had happened with Harry getting two brooms for Christmas, drag the women from her own private Christmas celebration to confront her best friend and find him gone. Fear had abruptly seized her thinking Harry had been foolish enough to try out the brooms without having anyone check them out first, reminding herself about males and how their brains would leave them around sports, made her nearly run to Professor McGonagall's classroom, the amount of times she'd wished she could put up a silencing charm when her dad was watching football when she was home from Hogwarts was practically every week.

As she and Professor McGonagall were hurrying towards the Gryffindor common room they nearly ran into Harry. Before McGonagall could berate Harry about using an unknown broom the wizards informed her and Hermione that he was coming to find her, after debating on whether it was worth it to wait a day to disrupt his professor's Christmas, decided the mitigating factor was that he didn't want to be responsible for one of his dorm mates *Ron* using a broom that potentially had who knew what dangerous hex or jinks on it. Both Hermione and McGonagall were surprised and impressed with Harry's reasoning, upon taking the broom from Harry, McGonagall informed Harry that they would get the broom back to him as soon as she could, but with the fact that he had already procured a replacement broom, they would take their time to make sure the broom was completely safe before she returned it to him. Bidding him a Merry Christmas, McGonagall left Hermione with Harry as she gently carried the broom to her office where she was planning to floo Flitwick and Hooch to let them know about the newest wrinkle in the saga of Harry Potter, as some of the staff had taken to referring to his school career up till now.

Walking back to their dorm Harry told Hermione that while he understood why she felt it was a good idea to tell a teacher about the mystery broom he felt hurt that she didn't talk to him about it before hand instead immediately running at telling McGonagall, feeling shamed faced that she had believed Harry to be so much like Ron, Hermione apologized and promised that if anything like this ever happened again she would talk to Harry about it first and they could decide what to do together as friends. As Harry and Hermione returned to the Gryffindor common room Harry was looking forward to breaking in the broom he ordered himself as well as the broom some mysterious benefactor had given him. He also hoped to talk to the quidditch team and thank them for the professional set of Seeker pads they'd bought him. He hoped they appreciated his gifts of various gift cards to Gladrags for the girls and Zonko's for the twins and Lee as much as he did their gift.

**A/N:** To those of you whose reviews I've responded to saying that an explanation was coming, I didn't say this chapter. It will be in the sixth one, so just hold on for a little bit and some answers will be given, and more questions may arise. **; )**

**A/N 2:** Story is starting to come at a slower pace than before, chapters might be getting posted at a longer interval than previously, have an outline and every plan to finish this story. Thank you for your patience.

**A/N 3:** As before, please review, thanx. **; )**


	6. Weasley Problems

**Chapter 6**

Percival Ignatius Weasley was the best of his siblings, if he were to be frank. Unlike his elder brothers, who made their mother white with fear over their jobs, he planned to take a proper job in the ministry of magic, perhaps an entry level position in the Department of International Magical Cooperation to get his feet wet. After a few years he expected that, his work showing for itself, to get a promotion to a more senior position with more rank and privilege. He would go on this way until he finally made it to the top position; minister of magic. Then maybe his father would see the disservice he was doing to his family mucking around with muggles.

This was not to say that Percy would consider himself a believer in blood supremacy, or that he hated his family; quite the opposite. He was doing all with the hope of getting some shine of responsibility and prominence upon his family. The fact that in doing it the way he was planning to would make it look like he was distaining his family hadn't crossed his mind, due to his belief that once his father saw how much better his life could be he'd stop mucking about with those stupid muggles. Really, they were little more than dogs in a kennel the way they acted. Then his father would take a job that would be proper for the pureblood head of an ancient household. Hopefully, it would also show his siblings the proper way to act so they wouldn't be so selfish taking jobs that would cause their mother to worry herself to death. Percy had always been more in tune with his mother's moods than anyone else at the Burrow.

Percy was in the kitchen helping his mother clean up from lunch when he decided to raise his concerns about his twin brothers.

"Mum, have you thought of any way I can get the twins to focus on their OWLs this year? Nothing that I've been doing seems to be effective; instead of listening to me about studying they spend most of their time, when not working on some new prank, having secret conversations with the Gryffindor quidditch team. When I've gone to check the pitch they're rarely there practicing. I don't know what to do, when I threaten to tell McGonagall about the fact that they will fail their OWLs they've assured me that they're working and will be ready to sit their OWLs." Percy looked so despondent that all Molly wanted to do was gather him up in her arms and just snuggle him. She called the twins down in order to question them about Percy's accusations.

The twins came down with a letter to send to Angelina about their renewed suspicions of their mother's continuing plan to get her hands on the Potter fortune. They thought going to Gringotts and getting Harry declared an adult would put a stop to that, but from conversations they overheard it would seem that their mother was not to be deterred in her quest. When their mum reacted suspiciously to the parchment Fred was holding that he wouldn't tell her about, he said it was a letter for Alica that George was hoping to ask Percy if he could borrow Hermes to send it to her. When Percy asked why George didn't ask himself, George replied that he didn't think to bring it down when their mother called thinking he was going to be wrongly accused of something he didn't do. At that statement Molly remembered why she called the twins down in the first place.

As she started her accusations about their not studying for their up coming OWLs Fred asked what made her think that they weren't studying. Molly replied that Percy had told her so. George sarcastically asked if Percy had been in the library for the last few months and seen him, Fred, Lee and Angelina and Alica all together. When Percy replied that he had and had almost gone over to chastise them for talking about quidditch or pranks when other people where studying, Fred replied that they were studying their OWLs. As they all got along well and were the same year it made it easier to study. If one person didn't understand a concept there was probably someone who did at the table. Molly was suspicious of their explanation but couldn't fault their reasons if they were telling the truth. After warning them of the fact that there would be dire consequences if their OWL scores prevented them from getting prosperous jobs in the wizarding world, she bid them to leave.

After Fred and George were gone, Molly and Percy sat at the kitchen table shocked at how wrong their beliefs in their family members turned out to be. Molly felt a rising hope that the rest of her children had seen the error of Bill and Charlie's ways and were planning on getting safe secure jobs with the Ministry and living happy prosperous lives, because in her mind she couldn't see how anyone could be happy, much less prosperous, running such a business as a joke shop if they truly loved their mothers.

After reviving themselves from the shock of a serious Fred and George, Percy began telling his mother about how the plan to get Harry with Ginny was going, using his position as Head Boy to further it.

Percy should not have been named prefect much less Head Boy. While Bill used his position to assure that the students of Hogwarts were acclimating to their life at Hogwarts, be they a first year to a seventh year; with an open door policy that would see him being sought out by even Slytherins if they had a problem they didn't want to take to a professor which Bill handled with an easiness that made him one of the most respected Head Boys Hogwarts had had in many a year, Percy was quite the opposite. Using his position in order to suck up to the professors, Percy would constantly levy much harder punishments than the situations required, leaving the professors to soften or reverse them while going to Dumbledore to complain. Dumbledore claimed that his hands were tied as the autonomy that the Head Boy was given lending them a certain ability to be above the Professor's rule as it was them all as a body that voted for each Head Boy each year. Dumbledore assured the professors that Percy was just letting the power go to his head a bit and would calm down over time, not realizing what not being listened to as a prefect had given Percy a massive inferiority complex that being named Head Boy had not helped, given that students still wouldn't listen to him thinking that he was a sanctimonious prig that needed to remove the stick from his arse.

Percy explained how he would sit next to Harry with Ginny on the other side of him trying to get her in Harry and the trio's conversation. Percy hated that almost the whole of Gryffindor house referred to Harry, Ron and Hermione as "The Trio". It was his opinion that referring to the three of them like that only lent credence to their rule breaking exploits and made it even harder for those in authority to punish them when they did something wrong.

Realizing she might have an ally in her attempt to better the standards of the Weasley family, Molly explained her scheme to Percy after first making him swear a wizarding oath not to talk to anyone else about this without her permission. Upon hearing what his mother planed to do, Percy agreed without a second thought. The memory of a half-blood who didn't even have the decency to grow up in the magical world having that much gold and political prestige when good hard working purebloods like him were looked down upon for being poor and the shame of his father's job, in his mind his brothers too; had him agreeing to his mothers proposal eagerly. After being shown the potion, Percy proposed using his position as Head Boy to have the elves slip it in Harry's drink. His mother's loving look made Percy feel warm in a strange, yet pleasant way.

As Percy unpacked in his dorm he was thankful for the fact that his dorm mates were so interested in telling each other what they had gotten for Christmas. It made it much easier to hide the potion his mother had given him to put in Potter's food. After hiding it away in a cushioned package under his bed, Percy set to unpacking the rest of what he brought back with him and securing his empty trunk at the foot of his bed. After making sure no one could easily disrupt his stuff, Percy set out to find Penelope.

Penelope Clearwater, Ravenclaw prefect and girlfriend of Percy, was at a crossroads. She was right where she wanted to be in regards to her chosen career; Unspeakable at the Department of Mysteries. However, there was one wrinkle; her boyfriend Percy Weasley. When she had gotten together with Percy last year she was rather offended by him wanting to keep their relationship a secret, thinking it was because she was a halfblood and Percy was a blood snob. Percy assured her that wasn't the case but spent most of the summer sending her letters about his hope of becoming a Head Boy or the fact that the twins had learned of their relationship somehow and had spent most of the summer teasing him.

Their return to Hogwarts and Percy being able to distance himself from the twins had helped their relationship initially, but Percy's obsession with being hired at the ministry and his worry that both his sister and girlfriend being possessed by effect by the basilisk last year would damage his chance led to him focusing on trying to lessen the blow by primarily lessening the amount of time they spent together. Penelope had decided to dump Percy, maybe she'd take up with his dorm mate Oliver, although she'd heard that he was rather obsessed with quidditch. Perhaps a boyfriend from Hufflepuff, while Slytherin would match her ambition, the fact that they wouldn't date her with her being a muggleborn made any Slytherin boy bleak prospects. She decided that she didn't need a boyfriend right now and would work on that project after graduation from Hogwarts this year.

Percy waited for Penelope at their table in the library, annoyed at her for not showing up as soon as the train had arrived at Hogwarts. Surely whatever she had to do could wait till after she met with him, after all he'd asked her to meet him at the library at the end of their back to school meeting the Head Boy and Girl had with the returning prefects. You would think the request of the Head Boy, not to mention her boyfriend, would carry more weight with the uppity mudblood. Ah well, there were better girls, purer girls if the Basilisk was anything to go by, at Hogwarts that he was sure would appreciate the companionship of the Head Boy. He noticed Penelope coming into the library and sat up straight waiting for her to get closer to reprimanded her. Unfortunately for him, Penny had a similar idea and was more on the ball than he was.

"I think we should break up," Penelope started, noticing the surprised look on his face Penny realized that their was no reason to be cruel and decided to explain why she thought they should go their own ways. "You're just not the man I thought you were. I want a partner, someone who is willing to share their plans and their life with me, not someone who plans to use me just to get higher in whatever government position by having the muggleborn mate to get the progressive vote." Percy flushed at his plan, he didn't realize Penny was aware of his main reason for courting her, being laid out so thoroughly. As he tried to stammer a rebuttal, Penny got up and landed the parting shot.

"I'm just pleased I found out what kind of man you were now when I could get out of it, rather than later when contracts or marriage had been brought into it. I would like to say that I will think of you fondly, but honestly you too Slytherin for me." As Percy tried to stammer out a reply to Penny's latest statement she poked her head back in to address him one last time.

"I was just wondering if you knew if Oliver Wood was currently dating anyone. I've seen how he treats his teammates as if they were one large family and think that would be the kind of man I'd want to get to know, someone that puts others before themselves." Seeing that Percy was still too busy dealing with being dumped/called a Slytherin, Penny decided to find Oliver and see for herself.

After Percy got over the shock of being dumped by Penny, he focused on his mum's plan. While he couldn't believe a paragon of pureblood virtue like him being dump by a no good mudblood, and he had such hope for Penny too. He was pleased he didn't bring Penny in on Molly's plan like he was thinking of doing. He guessed what his mother said was right, blood will out, good to know now and not when there was an irreversible contract over their heads. He was sure there were much purer women out there for a man of his abilities. When he saw Oliver out with Penny he just figured that all the blows to the head the Keeper had gotten had left him unable to come to the correct conclusion about how helpful the mudblood would be to his future prospects. Well his loss, Percy concluded as he tried to acquire the eye of some of purebloods from stronger families. Unfortunately for Percy most of them judged him on his family wealth, or lack of it; the others on how he treated Penny. It was safe to say that Percy wouldn't be getting a date in Hogwarts anytime soon. The fact that he was so ostracized strengthened his resolve towards following his mother's plan and make all of those people who treated him the way they did rue the day they ever thought to mess with Percival Weasley.

As things started to progress with their plan, the quidditch team decided that caution was required to make sure that the wolves didn't get the scent to quickly. From what Fred and George had overhear from their siblings conversations; the fact that Harry was showing no effect to the love potions keyed to Ginny that Ron and Ginny were slipping him was causing them to get anxious. The twosome was worried what might happen to Harry if they were to up the dosage anymore, after all a dead sugar daddy was no good to anyone if they weren't sure his will was written correctly.

Also causing consternation to the youngest of the Weasley siblings was the fact that Harry seemed to be lusting after Cho Chang instead of Ginny. What Ron and Ginny didn't realize was that Harry still had a minute amount of basilisk venom and phoenix tear in his blood, which while not powerful enough to disrupt the effects of the love potion, was able to divert the recipient of Harry's affection. As Ginny and Cho share a number of similar traits; both had slim builds, both were proficient at quidditch, what Ginny and her conspirators didn't realize given that they were too concerned over trying to fix the fact that the love potion wasn't directing Harry's affection to the correct recipient was that it didn't seem to be affecting Harry at all any more. Harry hadn't look at Cho with anything more than polite interest in her Quidditch ability in order to be able to overcome her skill since the goblin's ritual. For Ginny, the fact that he was paying attention to Cho at all was cause for worry and led her and Percy to writing to Molly with their problems. Molly quickly replied that the wards that Dumbledore placed over Harry with the muggles he sent Harry to live with might be throwing off the potion and that she will start brewing a newer stronger potion that she would owl to them later that month.

Even though Hermione's world view had taken a bit of an upheaval in the last two years, there were some things that even magic and all of the crazy escapades' she got up to with Harry and Ron could not shake. Her parents would always love her, any problem could be solved with enough studying, and professors had much more knowledge and life experience and therefore were always right when it came to problems. She contained the voice at the back of her head that reminded her of what her last two years of schooling had been like with the reminder that those were situations that were unlikely to be repeated and her logic was sound. It's always so sad to see someone delude themselves because they couldn't face the truth, with the way she and her 'boys' had been treated by the professors, including their head of house who didn't seem to think that they were ever telling the truth. But still, the little girl who would seek shelter with her teachers when the taunting of her school mates got to be too much still resided in Hermione and made it her defacto position to always believe that the professors had the school's best interests in mind even when that was shown to not always be the case.

It was because of this that when Hermione learned of the charges being laid against Molly Weasley, that were in part perpetrated by that woman's twin sons, she reacted with shock and horror. After she had thoroughly chastised the quidditch team, who by every word wore less and less friendly expressions, doubting their decision to explain what was happening with Harry to her best friend, Katie calmly addressed Hermione.

"Miss Granger what would you do if you knew someone you loved like a brother was going to be used against their will in order to foster someone else's plans. Given from what the healer's that have checked over Harry have said, if we had waited and informed the DLME of our suspicions and let everything go through proper channels, Harry would have quite rightly been dead." Ignoring the young girls horrified look, Katie continued, "The healer's report that we read said that their was a fatal dose of love potion keyed to Ginny Weasley in Harry's blood stream and all that was keeping it at bay was the mixture of Basilisk venom and Phoenix Tears that also resides in Harry. Given how unlikely such a treatment is to occur in nature, by ever right Harry should be dead. Is that what you want Miss Granger?" Katie finished with a sneer worthy of Snape upon her face.

At first Hermione, utterly convinced that she was right in her argument couldn't understand Katie's comments. By the time she had gotten down to the fact that Harry most likely would have been dead if not for the quidditch teams somewhat unpleasant actions, the poor girl was weeping tears to the point that Fred and George had conjured a chair and settled her in it. At any other time Hermione would have been amazed at the magical proficiency used in conjuring the chair, but right now she was suffering from extreme shock at what would have happened if the team had gone through the system and not taken the somewhat dangerous path that they had taken. All at once Hermione was filled with a sense of gratitude towards those she had been chastising. While she was still surprised that the quidditch team hadn't felt the need to ask for the professor's assistance, she had to admit that what they had done was a good thing. When she voiced this opinion she was shocked at the response.

"Hermione, the reason that we didn't go to Professor McGonnagall or the Headmaster wasn't because of expediency or that we didn't want to interrupt someone we thought was to busy, it was because we believe that they don't care about the safety of the school." Angelina commented. Seeing the shocked, horrified look on the younger girl's face the chaser continued, "In your first year you were almost killed by a mountain troll before you willing went into a situation that you were told would lead to you death if you did what you did. If it was so important for people not to be in that corridor why was the door locked with a charm that a first year could countermand?" When Hermione opened he mouth to form a response Angelina continued. "Look at last year; a basilisk slithering around, thankfully only petrifying people, and Dumbledore couldn't do anything about it. Not only that but we're supposed to believe that he was without resource when Malfoy's father comes with a missive supposedly from the school board dismissing him. Shouldn't at the vary least a meeting before the school board be arranged for Dumbledore to be given the chance to refute the charges Malfoy presented against him? Instead our Headmaster just leaves us to fend for ourselves, almost leading to the death of Harry, Ron and Ginny. You can still support the school staff, but given their actions over the last couple of years we're going to take what they say with quite a large grain of salt."

Later, Hermione sat in the library trying to make sense of the accusation being put forth by the Gryffindor quidditch team against the teachers and administrators of Hogwarts. The part of her that had always looked up to authority as the end all be all way that the world was governed was screaming with anger at the facts put out by Harry's teammates. The part of her that looked at everything that she came across in a calm and logical fashion was horrified also. While the two parts of Hermione had worked in concert previously, right now they were at opposite ends of Hermione's emotions. The rule abiding, teacher obeying part of her was horrified that a number of her students that owned their ability to the teachers to take part in their extra curricular activities were talking about going behind the backs of teachers and school administrators in order to accomplish something they might not want. After all, the Headmaster must have some reason for letting Harry be treated the way he was, they just weren't smart enough to understand it.

The part of Hermione that had been growing larger since she had lied to save Harry and Ron from any punishment during the troll incident was wondering if the teacher allowed the students to see them act so biased and horrible on a day-to-day basis, how bad were they really. Also if this was the case, was what they said about Mrs. Weasley the truth too? The rule abiding, professor worshiping part of Hermione beat the doubting part of Hermione till it crawled to the back of the girls mind, still the thought was there. As she sat in the library in confusion and indecision, a house elf popped in and told Hermione that her Head of House wanted to meet with her. After requesting that the house elf explain to her Head of House that she would be with her as soon as she got her self together, Hermione quickly packed up her bag and went to her meeting with McGonagall.

Upon entering her teacher's office, Hermione was shocked to see the usually composed put together Professor McGonagall looking like she had been told that someone in her family had died. While Hermione was turning around to leave and give her professor some privacy, McGonagall looked up and realized that Hermione was in her office. With the tongue lashing that her Quidditch team gave her those months ago still fresh in her mind the professor asked Hermione to come in and take a seat. Seeing that the girl was going to refuse she assured Hermione that nothing was wrong, she had just realized something she had been denying for quite a while. Hermione started as her favorite professor fixed her with a stern look and opened her mouth.

"Miss Granger I've called you here today to apologize for a great disservice that I have done to you. While I knew of the dangers, my pride and hubris overrode my good sense, leading to you being put into potential danger." McGonagall stated.

Hermione was shocked by her favorite professor's statement. While she would admit she had gotten into a bit of trouble in the two years that she had been a student at Hogwarts it had always been instigated by a Weasley. She reviewed what had been going on this year and, aside from the fact that a deranged follower of he-who-must-not-be-named was after her best friend, she could not detect anything going on in her life immediately that could cause her any harm, she was quite surprised when her teacher started speaking again after taking a sip of pumpkin juice to calm her nerves.

"Miss Granger I wish to apologize for arranging the loan of that time turner for you," while Hermione clutched her robes near where the time turner was situated McGonagall continued, "I have been watching you and with the stress of taking such a large class load in concurrence with the fact that Black has broken out of prison and most likely is trying to harm Mr. Potter in some way, thank Merlin that he wasn't able to find Mr. Potter's bed and Mr. Weasley raised the alarm and disrupted Blacks plan before he could hurt anybody. Regardless, the stress all of this has put upon you has caused quite a change in your studies it would seem, not that it's that much of a bad thing, but your term papers are being written more to the length we're asking you and not the "informative" tombs we've gotten from you in the past. On behalf of my co-workers, I've been asked to pass along our thanks on that matter. It's also been suggested that you learn how to condense the information that you derive from your studies so that your papers are more concise and on target. While some additional information about the topic that you are assigned is always interesting, having so much information that it might drown out the purpose of the assignment is quite another thing. I must inform you that Severus has stated that if you continue to write such laborious papers instead of doing the proper review and condensing of the pertinent information to the assigned length, he will at best give you an "A" on all of your papers regardless of how correct you are in addressing the topic of the essay. I also must inform you that Pomona and Filius have been thinking of following Severus on this."

As she focused on Hermione, McGonagall felt herself wince at what she saw. The poor girl looked like her whole world had been pulled from under her. Minerva wasn't sure what her student's teachers had been like before coming to Hogwarts, but apparently neither them or her had done the young witch any services letting Hermione complete her assignments the way she did. In her defense, McGonagall, as well as a few other professors, had thought that it was a muggle thing that Hermione would grow out of as she got acclimated to the wizarding world. The fact that Hermione was still like this along with some comments she'd heard spoken by some of the members of her house, had led her to decide to address her concerns with Hermione.

"It has been brought to my attention that some of us professors are seen as infallible by some of the students. I can assure you that this is far from the truth; we stumble and fall and make mistakes just like any other person. One of mine is similar to Severus' in that I've seen James in Harry and because of the way his father acted while at Hogwarts, perhaps have not taken neither his nor you or Mr. Weasley's warnings to heart. I noticed that Harry and Mr. Weasley went to Lockhart, regardless of my personal feelings for the man", McGonnagall didn't notice the slightly horrified look on her students face as she continued, "it makes me wonder if they went to him because he didn't have a preconceived opinion of Mr. Potter as do so many of us who knew his parents." The fact that her conversation with her professor was going into some embarrassing topics, had Hermione flushing in embarrassment on behalf of her professor. McGonnagall fixed Hermione with a strong gaze as she brought herself together and spoke.

"I wish to assure you that I plan to stand by any and all of my Gryffindors regardless of who their parentage is. I further assure you that I plan to treat all of my students equally despite parentage or house alliance. I hope you could pass that on to Mr. Potter?" Seeing Hermione nod in agreement, McGonnagall dismissed the shaken student and sat back, quitly contemplating of how lax the standards at Hogwarts had gotten and who had let them get this way.

Hermione's world view had been shaken quite a bit in the last thirty minutes. The fact that her most revered professor thought the way she was living her life was at fault caused her to be racked with indecision, for a person like Hermione who tried to plan out her whole day before she would go down to breakfast; after reviewing for an hour and making sure any assignment were done to her exact standards (which apparently would have caused her to not have succeeded in her classes if not for the input of her head of house) this was nearly making her physically sick. She had to take a good long time thinking about what to do next with the information she had gathered as well as figure out how to move forward. The fact that she didn't even think to ask Harry or some of the older students in Gryffindor was part of the problem.

Severus Snape sat shocked as he ate his breakfast, the paper open before him. It would seem that all of his former "friends" had died over the last couple of days, their Dark Marks plainly visible. When he noticed his own had come back last week he had thought that it meant that The Dark Lord had figured out a way to return to the mortal plain at last. The thought did not fill him with joy; he had enjoyed the relative freedom that he had the last twelve years.

While he didn't enjoy trying to teach the delicates of his art to a bunch of dunderheads like Potter and Longbottom, he had greatly enjoyed the freedom to experiment with different potion constructs' that his being able to procure as a Hogwarts professor availed him, along with some of the more esoteric potions some of his former comrades had paid him to brew for them had allowed for him to build a quite nice little nest egg.

The last remaining marked Death Eater would seem to be taken away from him as soon as the Aurors had gotten through with purging the trial records to make sure that everyone was accounted for. He wasn't sure that Dumbledore could protect him from what was to come as the old wizard hadn't heard a peep of the mass extinction of Voldemort's followers that had just happened. When a mover and shaker like Dumbledore was caught with his pants down it was time to make sure his contingency plans all still were available. Being safe at Hogwarts had lured him into a sense of complacency it would seem.

Tom Riddle was quite miserable in the bowels of Hell. The fact that he had corrupted himself to the extent that he had, in an effort to avoid what was happening, meant that his punishments would be creative and inventive. For a being that had prided himself on that with his followers, Tom was in for quite an awakening. While cursing Slughorn for his faulty information involving horcruxes, Riddle didn't notice the shades that were approaching him. When he looked up he was shocked to see a beaming Lily Potter, his reaction was quite amusing.

"No, no stay back, you're dead! You can't be here I killed you. Avada Kadavra!" When the spell failed to work and the shades still approached, Tom Riddle was filled with fear for the first time since he grew powerful enough to deal with the boys at the orphanage. Feeling that much fear, he didn't even notice his mother standing off to the side weeping continually. If he had he would have been ashamed to be related to such a weak creature. He looked around for one of his followers, given that with the way he casted the spell that linked their souls to him he expected to see them. Upon not seeing them he concluded that they must have left him as they did before when that horrible mudblood caused him to be pulled from his body twelve years previously. As if he conjured her, Tom heard a voice he had last heard piteously pleading, sounding much more vengeful.

"Hello Tom, my husband and I have been waiting for this moment for quite some time. While I plan to deal with Severus and Pettigrew when they get here, I'll take you for now. Tell me Tom, did you ever read Dante's Inferno?" With the woman's husband grinning behind her, Lily Potter waved her hand and torments that the man once known as Tom Riddle didn't have the capacity to even dream of were raining down upon him as if from Lucifer himself.

**A/N****: **This is the end of Riddle in this fic.


	7. Apologies and Shopping

**Chapter 7**

As Minerva McGonagall prepared to end her class she took a deep breath, what she planned to do next could very well change magical England as she knew it. She had thought long and hard about it and decided that this was the best way to go about it. So, with that in mind she asked Harry and Hermione to stay after class was let out. The students reacted as she expected; most of the Gryffindors shot the twosome a better you then me look while the Slytherins smirked at the thought of the golden pair of Gryffindor getting in trouble. What surprised her was the fact that Ronald Weasley looked so smug, the way he was behaving you would have thought that Draco Malfoy had found a time turner and some polyjuice potion and had attacked Mr. Weasley and used the potion to appear to look like their friend for some Slytherin mischief. Seeing the nervous look on two of her favorite Gryffindor's she decided to calm their fears.

"Mr. Potter, Miss Granger I have not held either of you back to punish you, in fact I have asked you to stay after in order to offer my most sincere apologies for what the two of you have gone through since you've started at Hogwarts." Seeing the confused looks on her student's faces McGonagall continued, "I told you when I gave your orientation speech in your first year after you got sorted into Gryffindor that your house was your family and any and all problems that you had I was willing to listen to them and help were I was able; however the first time one of you put that to the test I turned you away in scorn without even listening to your concerns. Now to be honest I put quite a bit of faith in Albus' promise that with the protections around the stone next to nobody would be able to get anywhere near it. Imagine my surprise the next day when he tells me of your and Mr. Weasley's escapades and triumph over you-know-who."

As Harry and Hermione shared a confused look McGonagall was surprised to feel none of what she would feel regarding Lily and James when they where in situations like this, honestly they seemed more like Lily and Severus before things went wrong between them. For all of Lily's protestations towards any form of affection, while the witch seemed more to be annoyed that the man she was attracted to wasn't worth her affections. Constantly she was seen looking after James Potter with a longing look, that once she became aware of it was turned into an annoyed look as her friends teased her about having a crush on James Potter.

The fact that it was so rare for the students to pair off in different sex friendships had a good deal of gossiping between the teachers over which wizards Hermione ended up with. It was fairly evenly matched between Ron and Harry; most of the teachers who favored Ron and Hermione getting together claimed it was due to the fact that Hermione and Ron acted like James and Lily acted before they got together. Snape when he heard this would go slightly pink and quickly attempt to change the subject, according to Albus he had never forgiven himself for the death of his best friend. This was all well and good but Minerva had never heard of Severus being sorry for the death of James, or the attempted death of young Harry. For that she would be hard pressed to forgive the potion master, no matter how hard he was trying to redeem himself. Realizing that her thoughts had gotten away from her Minerva cleared her throat and continued.

"As I was sitting in shock listening to what the two of you had gone through down there," seeing that both of them were about to protest for young mister Weasley's sake she would guess, McGonagall raised her hand and continued, "your loyalty to your friend does you credit, however, from what heard, Mister Weasley was out for the count, as I believe muggles say upon conquering my chess set." Seeing the unwilling, guilty nods on their faces she continued, "As I was saying, the two of you faced the situation, and came up with plans to defeat most, to all of the tasks us professors had put down there. While Mr. Weasley's prowess at the chess board is legendary here at Hogwarts (if he'd stop talking about it constantly it might not be), I doubt he would have been able to get through the rest of the trials as well as either of you did. That is not to take away from Mr. Weasley's accomplishment, as much as it is an observation that the two of you seem to let him skate by on your laurels rather than what he may or may not be able to accomplish on his own." As Harry and Hermione started to protest Minerva cleared her throat and they quieted immediately.

"Mr. Weasley's abilities are not the point here. I asked you to stay after to try to explain that I have done both of you a great disservice in how I have handled being your head of house. In part this has to do with things you have no business knowing. It also has to do with Mr. Potter's father." Hearing someone speak of one of his parents who he knew so little about had Harry looking at his professor with such an intent look on his face that she was taken aback.

"I was your father's godmother, something that he always tried to use in order to get out of punishments when he and his friends where caught after they got up to one of their escapades. While he was a lovely young man, who even now the thought of his and your mother's death can bring tears to my eyes, he was quite the scamp, something I have to admit that I've unknowingly attributed to you since you've started here due to how much you appear to resemble your father. I did not take you seriously in your first year when you came to tell my that someone was trying to steal the stone, thinking that you were trying to get me away from that part of the castle in order to set up a prank, as your father and his friends would have. After it was forcefully brought to my attention how poorly we as professor's treated you due to your parentage, I've gone back over my treatment of you and realized that I had judged you before I'd gotten to know you and for that I offer you my apologize, with the promise that you may come to me anytime with any problem you may have and I will try to help you to the best of my ability, regardless of your parentage."

At this point McGonagall stood up and went to a closet along the wall of her office. Opening the door she retrieved the Firebolt that had been sent to him. Turning with a smile upon her face McGonagall handed the broom to Harry, seeing Hermione start to protest she explained, to calm the girl's fears.

"Both Rolanda and Filius, that is to say Madam Hooch and Professor Flitwick, have been over this from handle to tail twig. As far as they are able to determine this is nothing more than a factory specific Firebolt, regardless of the strange way it appeared. You must have a rich friend somewhere out there in the wizarding world. I hope that this broom treats you better than the Nimbus did." McGonagall concluded, remembering all of the trouble that Harry had gotten up to on the broom that she had bought for him in his first year. Harry, as if remembering the same thing, smiled as he took the broom. Turning to McGonagall he replied.

"Please pass on my thanks and congratulation for being able to test and reapply the spells on the broomstick. If the copyright laws are in anyway similar in the wizarding world as they are in the muggle world, I would guess that they invalidated any warranty that may have been placed upon this broom, so I hope there are no further problems when I play quidditch. If so I might quit for health reasons." The quidditch team, who were loitering to try to see what, would be the fate of the Firebolt, along with McGonagall was overcome with a feeling of dread.

While everyone said that Harry was the best chance they had to get the quidditch cup since Charlie left the team, making it sound like they lost the cup for the first time, in Harry's first year, due to Charlie graduating the year before Harry started. What they don't know is that Charlie left the Gryffindor team the end of his fifth year/start of his sixth in an effort to focus more on getting his certificate to study dragons. So it had been Charlie's fourth year, six years ago that the Gryffindor's had won the quidditch cup; due to the fact that at Charlie's request he had been a reserve Seeker while he focused more on his OWL studies. This continued throughout the rest of his Hogwarts career as he focused on his beast mastery and dragon keeper studies to the exclusion of everything else.

Up until Harry joined the team, they had suffered through a new seeker every year, none coming close to the level of proficiency needed to even play at Hogwarts successfully much less professionally. While Oliver, as well as the captain before him, had tried to get the seekers to stay on the team, with promises of training runs to get them up to snuff, none of the potential Seekers were willing to stay on the team for more than one years run, until Harry. Harry's threat to quit would lead the Gryffindor team into calamitous ruin; however the team, aside from Oliver, could agree that Harry had a decent point as to how dangerous the games had been to him, outside of the normal dangers inherent in the game. Harry decided to table his concerns with the game until later, he had other concerns that he needed to address.

"Professor McGonagall, do you think if I wrote a note to Gringotts I would be able to use some of the money I got from "defeating" the Death Eater to set up a fund to help impoverished wizards like the Weasley's, maybe set up a scholarship or something similar that could defray the cost of one year of studies for one student a year?" As McGonagall stared at Harry, he began to feel nervous, thinking that McGonagall wanted a reason for his largess Harry explained, "I got the idea after learning how little funds the Weasley family has, if a family in similar financial situation had a year to have that pressure alleviated, what would they be able to do with the extra income they would have to use."

McGonagall had never been prouder of her young Gryffindor. While Harry may more physically resemble James there were times, such as now, when you couldn't help but see Lily shining through. After composing herself she spoke.

"I think, Harry, if your parents were alive, they would be very proud of you, I know I am. If they agree I would be willing to accompany you to Gringotts, as well as help you find the correct people to help you launch this charity." As she was thinking of everything that would need to be done the presentation of Harry crossed her mind, "perhaps a shopping trip is in order to get rid of those appalling cast offs your relatives force you to wear." Any form of protest Harry might have given was stopped by him staring at his best friend who was in her element.

"Oh Harry, this is wonderful, I thought of writing to my parents about them taking you on a shopping trip to get you better fitting clothes but was afraid that you would take offense at it. Now we can get you better clothes and you can fit in better in the magical and muggle world." Hermione said in a breathless voice usually used in regards to studies. Looking at his best friend and his Head of House Harry knew it was useless to try to fight it; a shopping trip would be in his future. Realizing, that as much as he didn't want to raise this next point, if he didn't he'd have three angry young women after him, Harry informed the two witches of something they didn't think of.

"You might want to speak to the Chasers." Seeing the looks on the two witches face's Harry explained, "I don't know exactly when they planned to do it, but at the end of our last quidditch practice I over heard plans for a shopping trip with covert looks being sent my way. Given that they might be planning something similar, and I only want to do this once, it might be a good idea to talk to them first."

Harry regretted opening his big mouth at once when Hermione rose, grabbed his arm and dragged him out of the room; shouting over her shoulder that they would check with the professor after they got together with the chaser line. Sending a look towards his head of house got him nothing more than a large smirk in his direction thinking that Harry was finally getting his life set the way it should be and looking forward to seeing what Harry would look like with proper fitting clothes. Hopefully, the boy would gain some confidence, grow out of his shell and learn to trust more people, although it would seem he was well on his way if his interactions with the quidditch team were anything to go from.

To Harry's horror, the chaser line was more than willing to go along with Hermione on her plan for replacing Harry's wardrobe. Seeing the miserable look on his face, the twins and Lee were chuckling, until Harry's face changed into an evil grin. Addressing the chaser line and Hermione, he asked if Fred, George and Lee didn't deserve something for bringing this problem to the rightful authority and getting the ball rolling. Threatening dire vengeance upon Harry; Lee and the twins were drawn into the shopping plans.

With their escorts of McGonagall and Flitwick; the team, descended upon Gladrags Wizardwear like a pride of lions upon a lame wildebeest. While the store clerk was used to witches dragging their wizards in to her store in an effort to "improve" their sense of style, she had very rarely seen multiple witches and wizards, not to mention an off number of witches to wizards, and never them being chaperoned by two Hogwarts professors.

"Alright, this is what we're going to do; Alicia, Katie, the two of you find clothes you think would look good on Harry. Remember, don't buy the ultra expensive. Just because Harry's come into money doesn't mean that he has to look like Malfoy. Alternatively, get nice enough clothes so that Harry is recognizable as the heir of an ancient and noble family. Fred, George, Lee, take Harry over to the underwear section and have him pick out what ever he'd like to wear. We'll reconvene here in an hour, maybe two." As Angelina was laying out her marching orders to the rest of the team plus Hermione, McGonagall and Flitwick were doing everything in their power not to break down in laughter at the horrified and distraught look on Harry's face.

Harry, while he would agree that he could use new clothes, didn't understand why so many people had to accompany him when he went to get them. Not that he didn't appreciate the company, but when he was first told about it Harry thought that it would just be him and professor McGonagall and Hermione, maybe Katie Bell, her being the female chaser closest in age to him. The fact that so many people care for him and wanted to help him was a bit much to take in. He knew that the quidditch team cared about him, but he thought that once they had managed to get a professor or some other responsible adult to take over, they would fade into the background and it would go back to the way it used to be, with him handling things on his own, with the help of Hermione when needed. While this new situation would take some getting used to it was too nice for Harry to give it up. However, he could do without the marathon shopping trip.

If they were to be asked; Angelina, Alica and Katie did care that Harry was feeling uncomfortable about how much attention was being directed his way but it was something that he would have to get used to if he were planning to stay in the wizarding world. No matter what Harry thought, he was someone the wizarding populace looked up to, admittedly for something that was hard to prove whether it was something he or his parents, most likely his mother, did that disembodied Voldemort. While they thought that Harry needed to develop a thicker skin to being out in public, they didn't want to push him too much, so they decided that the preliminaries were done about two hours after lunch. After thanking the professors for escorting them, the chasers had Fred and George escort them to one of their pranking labs that the twins had set up all over the castle. After they all were situated, Angelina turn to Harry and spoke as he was opening his mouth to yell at them.

"Do you know why we tried to get you to interact with the crowds so much today?" Angelina asked. When Harry grumbled something about being used for his fame, Angelina got a sad look on her face as she glared at Harry. After recovering her poise she resumed speaking.

"Yes your fame had something to do with it." Seeing Harry about to speak, Angelina continued, "Most of the wizarding world sees you as someone to look up to and emulate, for their children if not themselves. You have a power that any politician would kill to acquire. The fact that you don't want it is not going to change the fact that you have it. You could use it to do such good in driving progressive change like they have in the muggle world through ours. I'm not telling you to go out and become a politician tomorrow, just asking you to realize the fact that with the power you have you could affect wide spread change that could help people like Hermione as well as others who have been mistreated by the manner in which the purebloods have been running things." As Harry was wrapping his head around what was being said, a chime went off in the space they where in. As most of the team looked around in confusion Katie, blushing, raised her hand in embarrassment and explained.

"Harry, don't forget that the goblins sent you that missive at lunch last week asking you to meet with them. Professor McGonagall was worried that you would forget and asked me to help remind you." Harry got up and thanked the team for setting his head back on straight, after asking if they could meet when he got back from his meeting to help him with interacting with his peers.

It was a very tired Harry Potter who returned to his dorm later that night. Hermione was horrified at how long the simple trip had taken. She quickly gathered all of her books, quills and parchment and started revising for their upcoming end of year exams while studying the new materials that where outline in the syllabus that they were to go over next year. After setting everything up all over the table so that her study material was set up to her liking, which incidentally made it so no one else could use the six person table, Hermione turned to Harry to find him asleep.

Although she gave thought to letting her truly exhausted friend sleep, her need to know why he looked like he just had an all day quidditch practice won out. After a sleep muddled Harry had woken up enough to have a sensible conversation, Hermione put the book she was reading down and focused her attention on Harry, hoping to learn what happened on his shopping trip. Hermione, horrified that she had missed the signs of his abuse at the hands of his relatives, had been invited to join the shopping trip but given the amount of school work she had to work on it wasn't feasible for her to come along with the trip.

Seeing the hurt look on Harry's face had made Hermione want to confide in Harry about how she was taking all of her electives and the subsequent drain it was putting on her time to spend with him and Ron, but the promise she had made to Professor McGonagall won out and she snapped at Harry when he voiced his concern regarding how much time her homework was taking and how drained she looked. When Hermione inquired as to how the trip went, could she see any of the clothes he had purchased, a hurt looking Harry politely commented that given that he had a big day he ought to go to bed now so that he didn't potentially sleep through breakfast, and that he hoped she didn't stay up studying much longer.

As she sat in the shame of Harry's dismissal, Hermione curtailed her urge to run after Harry and explain to him about her strange schedule, the time turner, all of it. It was only the memory of how much Professor McGonagall had sacrificed in order to acquire the time turner for her that held her back. Little did Hermione know that McGonagall had gotten Hermione the time turn as a fail safe in case there was a need for more time to deal with Sirius Black coming after Harry and not so that Hermione could have taken all of the electives available, and at the very least expected her to share the information with Mr. Potter. If it was the case that they handed out time turners so that students could take all of the electives if they chose, than nearly every Ravenclaw from third year to fifth would be walking around with time turners hidden in their robes.

Deciding that if she was able to explain Harry would have understood her reason for keeping the way she was "managing" her complicated schedule, Hermione put her troubles with her best friend out of her mind. Looking at the clock and realizing how late it was, Hermione was tempted to turn back a few hours so she could study some more but was worried about causing a temporal paradox and instead gathered up her school work and went up the stairs to her dorm, promising herself that she would pencil in some time for her and Harry over the next weekend, not realizing that Ron would try to monopolize it due to it being a Hogsmead one.

Percy Weasley was looking at the letter that Hermes had dropped off from his mother. On it she wrote that while Harry coming into his majority caused problems to their initial plan, there were other ways to get what they were after. If the law wouldn't help them then she was sure some subtle potions would do the trick. Percy was instructed to make sure that Harry wasn't already attracted to anyone; if that was the case they would have to use a different, stronger potion that took longer to brew and had ingredients that were harder to procure.

Little did Percy know that his mother had taken to dousing Harry's pumpkin juice during their stay at Diagon during the summer and had tasked Ginny to get the house elves to continue the regiment once they were at Hogwarts. Given that it would need a piece of her hair to become active Molly felt that it was the best way to make the plan work. The fact that nothing was happening, according to Percy's letter led her to believe that a stronger potion was needed. While she was brewing the potion she sent to Ginny she was brewing the stronger potion, which she had hoped they wouldn't need. It wasn't that she wasn't against using whatever was at her disposal to get the desired result, it was just that the stronger potion somewhat mimicked the effects of the imperious curse which would be slightly more noticeable.

As the potions owled their way to her children, Molly decided that this was it, if this next potion regiment didn't work they would try through a bridal contract, something more legal than potion. While the potion worked well in stimulating the effects of infatuation in normal witches and wizards, with Harry, Molly wondered if Dumbledore placed wards on the boy that would nullify behavior modification potions given the lad's popularity. If that was so, it would have been nice of the man to tell her before she went to all of the trouble and expense of making the potion. Also, if what her Ronnie had owled her was true those bitches that Fred and George were associating with in the quidditch team would need to be pulled up short, perhaps a letter to the Daily Prophet would set those school children straight and remind them not to interfere in the affairs of adults.

Thinking about it further, Molly wondered if all of the trouble she was going to the get Harry and the Potter fortune in her family was worth it, especially given how much trouble his being emancipated was causing. They were much more well off this year than they were last year, what with winning the daily profit seven hundred gallon draw, although they didn't have nearly as much from it as they would if they had saved the lot of it instead of going and visiting Bill for a week in Egypt.

While that sheared off two hundred gallons, Arthur using another hundred to get tickets to the Quidditch World Cup ate up more than she thought should be spent on a one day activity. The fact that he used his connections at the Ministry to get a deal for the most expensive seats was inconsequential, although thinking about that she'd better make sure to get after Ronnie to invite Harry over next summer so that if Arthur's plans for the Cup fell though, as she expected them to, her family could use Harry's presence to get the seats that as purebloods she felt was theirs by their birthright. Little did she know that all of her plans were about to come crashing about her feet soon.


	8. Refinancing and Rebirth

**Chapter 8**

As Harry sat in the office the house elves had set up in one of the unused rooms that littered the castle, Harry let his mind wander to what the purpose of the castle was before it was turned into a school. From what he had gleaned from his history lessons in his muggle schooling, most of the castles littered around Europe were used as fortified protection for the nobility in the past. Harry wondered if any of them still own the castles of their forefathers, and if so did any live in them. Hermione might know he thought to himself but given how busy she was studying constantly he was not brave enough to ask her right then.

The reason that Harry had acquired an office was a compromise between him, the goblins and the Headmaster. The goblins had been sending Harry increasingly strident owls in regard to all of the new business that he had to deal with being the head of multiple pureblood families. Since Harry was a full time student, it was ill advised for him to meet with the wives of the supporters of he who killed his parents.

Not to mention that with Sirius having broken out of Azkaban, tension had been raised at Hogwarts to the extent that if Harry was away from the school for too long a stretch Dumbledore was worried that without adequate protection Harry would prove to be too tempting a target for Black. With all of the aurors out searching for the escaped convict, Dumbledore wasn't sure that he could arrange the proper number of adult witches to salve his conscience, so he was greatly appreciative of the fact that Harry was willing to conduct his business in the school. He strained under the penalties that the goblins put him under for the breach he initiated after learning that Harry was taking a trip to Gringotts that was too far gone in the planning for Dumbledore to extricate Harry from without amassing penalties.

Narcissa Malfoy had been elected by the wives of the squibed former Death Eaters to go and talk with Lord Potter. The fact that the wards on their "former" family manors had kicked them out with just the clothes on their back and they couldn't get any where near the grounds their former homes had been on had lead the whole of them to have no faith in their husband's abilities in rectifying the problem. When the notice from Gringotts came notifying them that the-boy-who-lived was the new owner of their former domiciles, they started to plan the best way to use their feminine whiles to get what they wanted. It worked well enough on their former husbands. Since Narcissa was the youngest of the wives, there was hope that Harry would react like any other teenage male at the sight of a curvy figure and be putty in her hands. Harry's dislike of Narcissa's son was something that was felt would be easily overcome by the witch's charms.

What the witches didn't count on was the fact that being treated little better than a house elf by his 'guardians', compiled by dealing with the combination of Voldemort, Snape, Dementors and to a lesser degree Dumbledore over the years that he had rejoined the wizarding world had left Harry with a will of iron as well as a strong dislike of what he perceived of anyone trying to take advantage of either him or his fame for any reason. Narcissa was in for a much tougher time than she had expected coming into her meeting with Harry Potter.

Harry, upon learning that he was meeting with Narcissa as the envoy of the DE's wives wondered if he would be feeling this way if a different witch was sent to meet with him. Not that he had much of a recollection of meeting Ms. Malfoy, or was it Black; he'd have to enquire at the meeting. The only impression he really had of her was the way her son Draco acted towards him and anyone else the Slytherin felt was beneath him, the fight in Flourish and Blot between Mr. Malfoy and Mr. Weasley and his feeling over what kind of people the Malfoy's were that they would treat Dobby so poorly. Realizing that these points, neither of which were first person indications of what Draco's mum was like was a poor way of judging someone, had Harry resolving to try to not let past impressions of Narcissa or Narcissa's family sway his meeting with the older witch.

Meanwhile, after getting an owl from her eldest sister describing the time and location of her meeting with Lord Potter, Narcissa picked out her most flattering robes; the ones that hugged her figure in all the right places. Along with being the youngest of her siblings she was also the one with the most curvaceous figure, something that her parents figured they could use to get more of a bride price for her than was the usually negotiated figure.

The sense of hubris that other pureblood families had, combined with the fact that by the time Andromeda had run away from her family to marry Ted had led the Blacks to have to negotiate outside of England with a pureblood family from France. Given the way the English felt about the French, at least the pureblood magical contingent, this could have been a disaster waiting to happen if Narcissa, who was much more of a charmer than her husband could ever hope to be spun a story about how Lucius had come from a family who had fallen on hard times in England and like any true Englishman had gone away to seek their fame and fortune. She then went on to explain how once her parents had learned of poor Lucius' family's plight they had contacted the Malfoy family straight away and set to bring them back into the bosom and embrace of proper pureblooded wizards.

Caught up in her reminiscing, Narcissa had almost missed the time for her meeting with Harry. Due to the fact that school was in session, the meeting was taking place at Hogwarts. Quickly casting a couple of charms to make sure her makeup was perfect and her robes fit correctly and hung without wrinkles, Narcissa strode towards the apparition point in preparation to apperate to Hogsmeads where she would walk to Hogwarts for her meeting with and, hopefully, successful seduction of The-Boy-Who-Held-Their-Future-In-His-Hand.

It was a truly disheveled and exhausted Narcissa who exited Hogwarts three hours later. Her robes were rumpled and partly unfastened, her face was streaked with sweat making her prefect blond hair stick to it in an unsightly fashion and she was panting for breath. As quickly as she could she stumbled to the apperation point in Hogsmead and apparated back to The Leaky Cauldron, so out of sorts that she didn't even take the necessary care to make herself presentable, so full of shock was Narcissa.

After she had taken a slug of firewiskey, under the disbelieving eyes of the widows of the death eaters, Narcissa realized her disheveled state. Blushing brightly she took her wand and wordlessly waved it in a circular pattern above her head; instantly causing her hair, makeup and robes to return themselves to their previously pristine state. As she was recovering herself, the widows gathering around her wondered just what had happened that put the former Malfoy in the state she was when she entered the manor.

Not entertaining any questions regarding her state of dress as she came in from her meeting with their new lord, Narcissa explained what was expected of them. It didn't come as much of a surprise that Lord Potter didn't trust them due to their husbands and what they did, under the compunction of the _Imperious_ or not. The fact that they were to get a monthly stipend was greeted with pleasure until they heard how low they amount was going to be.

While, if they were honest, the amount was a manageable sum for these purebloods to live on and support their children, it was pocket change compared to the sort of funds they were used to having. Narcissa's claim that Lord Potter was willing to allow them more money if they showed that they didn't live in a manner supporting their husband's genocidal ways was greeted with joy, the fact that they had to go to either the Department of Magical Law Enforcement or Gringotts and swear a binding oath that they were, if not fighting on the side of the light, then not working to undermine it was seen as a move worthy of a Slytherin. However, the fact that he was making them free any elves that wanted to be free caused many of them to wish for the boy wizard to meet a grisly end.

When asked what Lord Potter was going to do about the fact that the former Death Eaters had come out of their death/coma's, Narcissa replied that as far as Lord Potter was concerned anyone who had their magic drained by virtue of their dark mark deserved being considered dead/no longer a member of the wizarding world and could work in the muggle world if they wanted to survive. Furthermore, Narcissa explained, any witch who didn't like the terms Lord Potter was presenting could join their husbands in seeking their fortunes in the muggle world.

While most of the women there were grumbling about what good was Narcissa if she couldn't get the half-blood whelp to bend to their bidding, none of them saw the witch in question smiling as she thought about all of the bending both she and Harry had to do in the course of their negotiations. The Boy-who-lived really was flexible and had quite a twisty tongue she thought, all ready planning how to stay the emissary between the DE widows and Lord Potter.

Coming out of his meeting with Narcissa, after catching his breath, Harry was surprised everything went so smoothly. After working himself into a state in which he had a blinding headache and not enough time to inquire after a potion for it, Harry was amazed at how well he felt. He would have to share with his dorm mates this manner of relieving stress, it was certainly better than any treatment he had ever gotten from Pomphrey.

Harry finished signing his name on the last piece of parchment; the ads to be placed in the Prophet were completed. As Harry didn't need as many manor houses as he had come in possession of, he had started to place ads in various papers, mostly foreign, advertising them for sale to those that either wanted to live in style while the took a position in England, such as an ambassadorship, or those who wished to have a holiday home in England.

Given that with his being at school full time he was unable to leave Hogwarts the amount of time necessary to meet with the all of the representatives of the prospective buyers, Harry, under the tutelage of McGonagall had sent an owl to Marcus Johnson, solicitor and father of Angelina. While he didn't buy into the pureblood nonsense like so much of the rest of the wizarding world, even most of the halfbloods and muggleborns seemed to see acting like the purebloods and taking their beliefs as their own to be the only way to advance in magical England, he realized that most of wizarding Europe did and it would behoove him to have a emissary that was the proper "kind" in order to smooth over some of the rough spot that were bound to turn up with someone as young as Harry having control over so much political and financial power.

While Angelina wasn't that pleased to have her father take more of an interest in her life, the howler she had gotten, when her father got to the part of getting Harry into a position where he needed a solicitor would forever be burned in her brain, she was pleased that Harry had someone he could trust to look out for his interests. Her reply letter, reminding her father that he and her mother had taught her to stick up for both herself and her friends if she saw wrongdoing being perpetrated against them had a apologetic note being sent the next day from her parents.

After meeting Harry, Marcus immediately agreed to represent Harry in his dealings with the DE wives' solicitors. While most of the witches were displeased to learn that they were being evicted from their family manors, the explanation that they would be given first refusal to buy back their manors and if they couldn't afford the asking price and it was sold to someone else they would get a percentage of the final sales amount, with most of it going to charities, as a form of compensation upon the swearing of an oath to not go against the interests of Lord Potter nor support any Dark Lord, ever.

Also they would be expected to get a job and provide for their families in the long run. While some of these terms were hard to digest by the women, especially having to look for a job, who thought their lives were set upon the betrothal to their recently departed husband, to have to negotiate an entirely new settlement, so to speak, was galling, but it could have been worse. The fact that they would only be getting a pittance of the sales price of their former homes when they were expected to start an entire new life was one of the bitterer pills to swallow. Many of the DE widows were left wondering what exactly Narcissa got for them in her negotiation with the Lord Potter.

After the last contract was signed Harry slumped exhausted, back into his seat. Give him a dark lord to fight any day of the week. His last two encounters with Voldemort were cake walks compared to this. Harry was learning what many before him had realized; solicitors where the real dark lords. The goblins came in and gathered up all of the contracts after making copies for Harry's records, promising that they would send out the contracts first thing tomorrow morning to all appropriate parties.

Draco Malfoy was in for a rude awaking as he got up that weekend. He had decided enough was enough. While he was saddened that his father had been cut down in his prime there were other matter's that required the new Lord Malfoy's attention; pity that Malfoy thought that was him. As he got down to breakfast he was smiling in anticipation of seeing the look on Potter's face when the pathetic halfblood saw his advantage on the quidditch pitch taken away from him by his better, a Malfoy.

Draco had first gotten word of the fact that Potter had gotten a Firebolt from overhearing the conversation between Weasley and his sister as they were passing him in one of the corridors in Hogwarts. While he would normally consider any conversation Weasley's would be having as being to plebian for him to waste his valuable time in paying attention to, upon hearing Weasel comment of a Firebolt made him pause and discreetly follow the two Weasels as they had their conversation.

It would appear that the showoff, Potter, had some how gotten two new brooms for Christmas. One was a foreign broom, but really what would you expect from a halfblood who was raised outside of the proper learning of the wizarding world. It was the other broom, the Firebolt, that made Draco nearly apoplectic with rage. How dare scarhead use his fame to get a top of the line racing broom, when Draco couldn't. Now Draco's plans were ruined, Potter, unlikely to be able to afford to buy a Nimbus 2000 with what money he had available, would be put in his proper place in quidditch by Draco Malfoy and finally learn how to treat his betters.

Quickly sending off a letter to Quality Quidditch Supplies, Draco ordered them to send him their best Firebolt broom, deducting the payment out of the main Malfoy vault. After waiting a week, instead of a broom Draco got a letter from his mother. In it she explained how the unworthy Potter now controlled their future due to being given their vault, as well as the vaults of all of their friends, meaning that an uncouth halfblood controlled the Malfoy fortune. The fact that he was giving them an allowance was inconsequential. Upon reading this, even as his mother ordered him not to raise a hand against their new lord, Draco began plotting his revenge, planning to show the upstart halfblood what happens when you go up against a Malfoy.

Some of the children of death eater families were rather pleased by the loss of their heads of house. With their friendships with the members of other houses (not all DE children ended up in Slytherin, just most of them) they had learned about what the muggle world was like. While they at first reacted with surprise and scorn, given how different this was from the teaching they had been raised on, now they were looking at their futures in a whole new light as a result of the deaths of their parents, not having to follow in their father's footsteps.

Meanwhile St. Mungo's was feeling a bit of a pinch, after the death of so many heads of pureblood families and investigation was launched by Fudge to get to the bottom of the mass death of the imperious victim of the last war. While this wasn't a priority, with the minister breathing down their necks if there was no progress in some form, a study needed to be shown. Two healers, one for in the morning/afternoon and one for in the evenings/night were put on a rotation to check and make sure that whatever caused the death of so many prominent purebloods wasn't catching and needed dealing with, as they didn't have the time, dealing with the loss of so many pureblood heads and what that will do to the government, on top of the on going search for Sirius Black.

Angus Green was two years into his training as a healer. While he enjoyed learning how to fix various interesting magical maladies, he knew he liked Pomfrey for a reason. The rounds in which healers seemed to treat him badly because they had been treated badly was somewhat wearing. Green appreciated the morgue rotation, admittedly nothing much was happening down there, save for running into the occasional ghost and helping them come to grips with their death before directing them to the department of undead existence for their counseling session and haunting help. Today was to be one for the books, however.

Angus had gotten out his quill and was just about to fill out the time scroll when he heard a shuffling, figuring that a ghost was coming into being, Intern Green turned to perform whatever necessary counseling would be needed to help this ghost get through their recent death. Given that these were all bodies of either former Death Eaters or imperious victims, Angus was not looking forward to this task, however, it did provide him with an opportunity to ask something he'd always been curious about; what made them want to snack on a corpse.

As the head of St. Mungo's, Arthur Clark floo'd home three hours into the death shift, as it was called, he thought about quitting. He'd never heard of anyone coming back from the dead before without a ritual done such as one to call forth inferi and no one else had entered the room long enough to set up the ritual, the only thing similar being the Boy-Who-Lived, maybe that's what happened to him. If the scans came back negative for inferi, Arthur wondered how much trouble it would be to bring Potter down for some comparison checks.


	9. The Ministry Looks Towards Hogwarts

**Chapter 9**

**A/N****:** Will be some Hermione bashing in this chapter, general Weasley bashing.

Things were happening at the ministry. Even though it had taken longer than one would expect, the fact that all of the Death Eaters had died yet somehow been miraculously revived beyond any known feat of magic was causing quite an uproar in the normally smoothly run government. After the reliving Death Eaters had given their testimony it was clear they all believed that Harry Potter had something to do with their deaths and possibly with their revival. Upon being checked out by healers, it was reported that the purebloods had basically gone into a state that mimicked the Draught of Living Death, save the living part. As best as the healer could explain it, the wizards were frozen in time with no magic or any life force large enough to react to any of their scans after their deaths. It was decided to be classified as a new form of inferi only without a control wizard.

When she was told of this, Amelia Bones was shocked; it wasn't bad enough that Black had escaped and presumably been turned into one of these new inferi, now they had all of the other ones to deal with. On the other side, it was nice to think that they didn't have Death Eaters secret or otherwise to deal with. She set to gathering up a task force to track down any other Death Eaters that may still be out there using a tracking charm, that given that magic didn't seem to behave normally on the revived death eaters, would work on whatever was in them that would react to magic to use in order to track down whatever Death Eaters still remained at large.

Their insistence that Harry Potter had something to do with their condition could not be verified by either the Healers or the Unspeakables that had been brought in to perform scans on both Harry and the DE inferi, as they were being called, much to the former Voldemort follower's annoyance. They weren't inferi; they had just died and had somehow come back to life, as far a they were aware the ritual to bring them back as inferi hadn't been attempted. If it had, it had been done incorrectly; they still had a heartbeat, they still got hungry, needed to use the facilities and sleep. They just couldn't access their magic as of yet.

After enquiring about their fortunes, sons, wives and daughters, the DE inferi were told that their families had been brought under Potter's banner. This surprised them, from what all of the former Death Eaters knew, according to Severus, Potter wasn't any great shakes as a wizard; did he somehow come across all of their widows and mass imperious them? When Lucius, who voiced this theory, was ridiculed for he opinion he explained how just last year Potter had worked some form of magic that turned his house elf against him. If Potter could do that, knowing how weak house elves were what kind of magical thrall did he have their wives under. Lucius responded that he would take their case to the Minister and get Fudge to pressure Potter to at the very least give them their money back.

Cornelius Fudge was a weak man, the kind of man that went wherever the prevailing wind was blowing. This made him a good Minister for those who do their business by virtue of bribery and intimidation. As the kind of man who liked his creature comforts, Fudge was not looking forward to giving them up, now that his main source of supplemental income had been given to the boy who lived.

As he made his way to the chamber of the Wizengamot, Fudge went over his argument in his head. The fact that a mere half-blood now controlled some of the greatest fortunes in the wizarding world must be stopped before others of low bearing figure out how to repeat his feat. Although the fact that an Azkaban inmate had broken out and was chasing after him was tragic, it did not give Harry the right to harass good upstanding purebloods.

After the Wizengamot clerk had finished reading the minutes from the previous meeting Dumbledore asked if there was any new business. He asked this more for forms sake than expecting to get any sort of response, with what had happened to Voldemorts former supporters they had barely enough for the required quorum necessary to allow the meetings. To his surprise the minister, followed by his undersecretary, stood and walked to the dais in front of the Wizengamot.

"Honored members of the Wizengamot, I come before you today to address a great injustice that has been done against prominent members of our community. While they are without their magics they were quite a driving force in our way of living for many years. Is it right for them to have their monies and homes taken from them and given to a halfblooded upstart who doesn't even have the decency to live in the wizarding world? I ask you, who do you want to be in charge of our country's future; good able pureblooded families who can trace their lineage eons back, or some halfblood whelp that doesn't even have the understanding of our world to uphold its basic tenants." Fudge espoused, taking a breath to call for a vote as to who owns the death eaters funds, as they were being called, he was interrupted by Madam Longbottom.

"Cornelius, I don't even understand why you're bringing this topic up, you know as well as the rest of us that there was a bill passed a few years ago in this august chamber, which was sponsored by Lucius Malfoy before his unfortunate squibing that made it illegal for any human without magic to hold land, titles, or any sustainable amount of money in Britain. Just because the former Malfoy leader has run afoul of his own law does not make it any less so. I put forth that Minister Fudge's request is dismissed as being beyond the scope of the law and therefore illegal, all in favor." Considering most of the members of the Wizengamot who would oppose the Longbottom regent had run afoul of the squibing sickness, the measure pass virtually unopposed. The opposition, as there were some dark supporters who went unmarked, wasn't enough to stop the dismissal. Fudge was turned away from the Wizengamot, returning to his seat Fudge spent the next few minutes trying to figure out how to keep himself in the lifestyle he had become accustomed to, without the support of Lucius and his friends.

"The minister does raise a good point though, since most of the members who have been afflicted by the "squibing sickness" seem to come from pureblood families, by and large, something would need to be done in order to keep them from revealing our world to the muggles." Madam Longbottom commented after some thought.

The reaction of the chamber was that of horror. While it was common practice for those wizards who, for one reason or another, are sent into the muggle world, with their memories repressed when they are declared to no longer be welcome in the magical one. No one had thought what they might give away by their lack of exposure to the muggle world. As the mood in the room quickly started to turn to panic, Madam Longbottom raised her hand and the chamber fell silent, every ear on her comment.

"My grandson and heir is friends with one of the most talented muggleborns who have come to Hogwarts since The-Boy-Who-Lived's mother walked those halls. Since she would be more relevant as to the goings on in the muggle world, not to mention still living, I'd suggest an owl be sent to Hermione Granger house Gryffindor at Hogwarts to ask her what might be the minimum requirement as far as living in the muggle world goes." Madam Longbottom concluded and sat down.

This set the tone for Fudge in that particular Wizengamot meeting. When it was raised that they really had no idea from an impartial source as to what went on in Hogwarts, the idea of an inquisitor was raised. Fudge jumped upon that idea like a hippogriff with a ferret. However his proposition of Madame Umbridge being sent as their representative was shot down due to her not having any knowledge of how the education system was set up save from what she might remember from her time at Hogwarts.

While it was decided that someone from the Department of the Wizarding Examination Authority would be the proper position to ask for an ambassador, due to the fact that they already administer the OWL and NEWT exams at the end of each year so they probably already have a general idea of what needs to be fixed at Hogwarts. However it was decided that it was to early to decide if an inquisitor was necessary at Hogwarts just yet. The decision was made to do as Madam Longbottom suggested and owl Ms. Granger at her earliest convince and go from there

One might wonder why Harry wasn't suggested as a muggle expert to be called upon. Given his parentage, even though he had spent the majority of his life in the muggle world, Harry Potter as The-Boy-Who-Lived was still thought of as a wizard and was not given consideration when the idea of someone to use to wean the former Death Eaters, now squibs, into the muggle world.

Hermione Granger, while surprised to be getting an owl from the Dame Longbottom, once she understood what was being asked of her set to it with a will. The fact that it would take more time using the time turner, that she was advised to use sparingly, was ignored as the part of her that had thought that the Purebloods would stop their racial intolerance against muggleborn if they only spent some time in that world, was awakened. Hermione used the time turner she was suppose to use only for her schooling to work up a schedule and teaching plan. The first syllabus she sent off was returned with questions on every page. While it surprised Hermione that even the most general muggle concept proved to be beyond the understanding of most wizards, she dutifully gave it another past and sent it on to the newly created muggle learning center for squibs.

When the squib death eaters complained about having to learn about muggle filth, they were given the option of Altcourse and other muggle prisons where they were informed they would really learn about muggle filth. When Lucius Malfoy called the committees bluff he was summarily cuffed, dragged off and placed in the aforementioned Altcourse for a month. When the former Lord Malfoy came back, he was meek and obliging.

When he was asked about his stay in muggle prison, Malfoy replied that the muggles had torture that they couldn't even comprehend. Seeing the former leader of their cause having such an about face the rest of the squibed wizards became much more afraid of just what the muggles could do that they didn't know about.

The first time the group ventured to Piccadilly Circus, the ambulances were almost required as the former wizards learned just what the muggles were capable of. As they were getting their bearings back from the underground transportation, most of the wizards were amazed to learn that the muggles had something similar to the gringotts carts that they used to transport themselves around.

The variety of people the newly minted squibs saw nearly put them into a faint. After some time in the muggle pub to catch their bearings, which was a surprise in and of itself, both the differences in muggle liquor and how good it tasted, the DE squibs went out into the muggle world. To their credit, with the use of liquor as a deadening agent, the DE squibs lasted the two hours their instructor had requested of them when he brought them out to experience the muggle world.

While they didn't greatly enjoy it, with repeated visits, the squibed death eaters learned to live in the muggle world. Three years later when they were released from their training houses into the main populace with a birth certificate, listings of job openings and hostels, it was a subdued group who, while they still hated what they thought of as inferiors, had to admit that the muggle world had more surprises and advances then they would have suspected. For the most part, due to their training, the former death eaters integrated into the muggle world quite well, although always thinking how much easier it was to do what they were doing with magic, while swearing that if they ever crossed paths with Harry Potter, the Potter scion had better watch his back.

While Hestia was getting herself settled in her classroom in another part of Hogwarts, some soul searching was going on. Upon getting an owl from their father the twins had begged off from the rest of the team and went to one of their secret labs to think about what they had been told.

The fact of the matter was that trying to stop a family member from doing something that would have horrific consequences if it were discovered and causing one's family to get in trouble due to the fact that what they were trying to stop had already gone into effect. Although the twins didn't know this when they started complaining and plotting with the quidditch team so many months ago, they still felt the burden of seeing their mother in jail while their siblings were being investigated to see if their mother acted alone or if any other members of the Weasley family were responsible for the attempted line theft against an ancient and noble house such as the Potters.

What the twins had failed to realize was the fact that since Sirius Black was out of jail, presumably to hunt down and finish what his master had failed to do, any slight against the last Potter was going to be acted on with slightly more vigilance than would be expected otherwise. When the team met to talk about what had happened in the fallout of their actions, Harry said that while he felt sorry for what was happening with the Weasleys, he wasn't about to forgive them for trying to brainwash him into doing something he didn't want to do. While the twins couldn't blame Harry for his stance, they had hoped that in protecting him it wouldn't come to this.

Sensing that the twins might need some time alone to digest the owl they had gotten from their father, the rest of the team gave them their time alone. Given the twins time to come to grips with this the chasers, were pleasantly surprised with the fact that instead of going out and grilling their siblings as to the veracity of what their father had owled them, the twins were calmly thinking things through before taking any action. Lee followed after making sure there wasn't anything he could do that might put a smile on either of their faces, seeing the twins in a somber, serious mood just struck him as wrong and Lee wanted his friends back as soon as possible. After thanking Lee for trying to help them, the twins bid their friend on his way and sat down to try to decide what to do with the information they had been sent.

As the twins sat there digesting what they had learned from their father, a number of thoughts swirled in their heads. How deep were their siblings in their mother's schemes? Ron, they believed to have no knowledge of any plan to ensnare Harry, not cause he was such a great friend of Harry's but because he was unable to keep a secret to himself, especially if it would lead to him coming in to a good amount of money. Really the way he carried on after dad won the daily prophet prize draw acting like they would never have any money issues again. This was before they used most of it to go visit Bill in Egypt. After thinking about it, the twins made a note to request that their dad get the services of a mind healer.

Just the fact that certain members of their family seemed to be thinking that this was a viable option made the twins realize how far gone some of them really were. Considering whom else among their family could be part of the plot, and realizing that it was most likely the few of them they knew made the twins breathe easier. Unless their two eldest siblings were terrific actors, neither Bill nor Charlie, with the amount of rows they get into with Molly over their choice of career and hair style, in Bill's case, were part of this insidious plot against Harry. The twins didn't understand Molly's dislike of Bill's hairstyle. If it didn't seem like it would cause so many problems with quidditch, they might taken after their oldest brother and his sartorial splendor, something to think about after they got out of Hogwarts.

The rest of the team, seeing that this was something that the twins needed to deal with on their own, left them to their thoughts. While the twins were silent they appreciated the compassion of their teammates. They would explain what was going on but they had to digest it first.

The twins, while they may not have shone it, dearly loved their siblings and were willing to help them with anything that was asked of them. Neither Fred nor George thought that Ginny or Harry would be good for each other. Ginny was too sheltered and innocent, even after what had happened to her last term, still believing that life could turn out like the fairy tails that Mum would read to her. Now that they thought about it, the hero and heroine bore quite a resemblance to Harry and Ginny in their Mum's telling. Thinking that if they hadn't hidden in their room from Mum, they might have been able to counsel Ginny to see Harry as just a boy, and not the mythological figure their Mum built him up to be, they might not be in this situation. The twins decided that whatever the outcome, they would try to spend more time with their family after they kept their Mum from destroying it.

After the twins came back, the rest of the team were surprised to learn that they still wanted to go through with the plan. When asked about it, Fred replied that while the reasons they were doing this was to help Harry overall, but keeping their Mum and some of their siblings from completely destroying the family name was something that need to be done too. Upon their statement of needing to see their actions through to the end, the rest of the team offered whatever help they could in assisting the twins in their endeavor.

Harry and Hermione weren't sure how to feel, Harry more so. Ron had just up and abandoned them, claiming that if Harry was rich enough to own two top of the line racing brooms and wouldn't let Ron have the foreign one, then what good was hanging around Potter if you didn't get access to top of the line stuff whenever you wanted it. Harry didn't know what to do. He would think at the very least the fact that he battled a Basilisk to save Ginny would show that he cared more for the Weasleys than himself and much more than material things.

As Ron came down the steps after putting his books on his bed, he had begged Hermione off claiming that he would get started on his weekend homework tomorrow. He was filled with conflicting feelings about his best mate. Since meeting Harry, Ron had tried to help him integrate into the wizarding world and help him understand the important things within it; such as food and Quidditch and the properness of English wizards. That was one of the reasons his family didn't get along with the Malfoys; who'd want to be chummy with those frog spawning frenchies anyway.

Harry, after two years of letting Ron guide him on his way in the wizarding world, had suddenly stopped listening to the redheaded pureblood's advice and seemed to have turned into a male Hermione over night. After what had happened last year, Ron suspected that Hermione was polyjuicing herself to look like Harry, but on further thought couldn't figure out why she'd want to do that.

Ron wondered whether Hermione had come up with a potion version of the Imperious curse, being too smart to use her wand. Thinking that he needed some food to help him with his concentration, Ron walked towards the great hall, hoping they had started to set up for lunch. Once he had some food in him he would be able to figure out a way to help Harry overcome Hermione's learning loving habits. Before you knew it, Harry would only care about Quidditch, chess and stopping the schemes of slimy snakes like Malfoy and Snape, as he should.

Ron thought that his work to get Harry back to the fun loving lad that Ron met on the express was baring fruit. The fact that Harry had smashed his Nimbus actually pleased Ron. He had never had a brand new top of the line racing broom, why should Harry get one after just entering the wizarding world? If he drained his account to get the Firebolt, Ron would know that Harry was just like Malfoy, always shoving the fact that he has all of this money and never offering his family any. What Ron didn't know was that Harry had offered to supplement the Weasley's income for the time he spent unannounced at the Burrow last year. Arthur refused, yet Molly would have gladly taken whatever money Harry had wanted to give them.

Hearing that Harry had gotten two world class brooms, Ron went to Harry to take a look at them, expecting Harry to hand over the foreign broom and use the Firebolt. Sure it wasn't a British made broom but it seemed to be better than what Malfoy had. Sadly Ron was to be disappointed when he went to Harry, asking for the lesser broom. Harry with a confused look on his face addressed Ron.

"Why would you expect me to give you a broom that I spent my own money on just because I've gotten two?" The tips of Ron's ears started to get red after Harry refused to just give him the inferior broom. Harry continued, "Just because I've gotten a Firebolt from questionable means doesn't mean that I'm just going to give up my spare broom now that I have one. What if another willow situation happens? It would behoove me to keep whatever broom I don't use in reserve just in case. Even if that wasn't true, with how roughly you treat your possessions if the state of your room the summer before second year is anything to go by, I wouldn't want you to use my spare broom without some kind of supervision anyways." Harry finished.

Ron couldn't believe what Harry was saying, how someone could be like this. Sure he was filled with envy when he saw the state of Harry's vault last year, but given that Harry wasn't lording his wealth over him like Malfoy, Ron could forgive him. Now not so much, for someone to have two racing brooms and to by a prat enough not to let one's less fortunate even use the worse broom made them, in Ron's eyes, someone that he couldn't be friends with.

He had taken a lot with Harry using his fame to get himself out of trouble but now with the Firebolt Company sending Harry a broom to use, probably hoping The-Boy-Who-Lived would give them a good word, Ron couldn't deal with the attention seeker anymore. Harry and Hermione were insane to think that Sirius Black stopped in his running from the Auror to stop and buy Harry a broom, why couldn't either of them see it was most likely McGonagall or Lupin who bought it, just two more people under Harry's spell. Poor Boy-Who-Lived; my parents died and left me a king's ransom, can get any broom I want when other people have to scrimp and save just to buy a secondhand broom that's five years old. Ron was done with Potter, he thought that by hanging around him some of his fame would rub of on Ron, if Potter was going to act so much like Malfoy it wasn't worth it.

Wanting some sympathy after having been mercilessly turned down by that showoff Harry, Ron went to the twins complaining about Harry hogging two brooms and not letting him, Ron, have either one. Seeing the twins roll their eyes angered Ron.

"I can't believe you two; you're supposed to stick with your family. I guess you like that showoff Potter. Well I'll tell you this, he is no longer welcome at the burrow" Ron stated. Waiting for the twins to be repentant and apologetic, Ron was horrified to see his brother's nodding their heads to his accusations. Seeing their little brother's temper ready to explode the twins decided to explain.

"What you don't seem to understand, Ronald, is that the seeker position is the most dangerous position. Charlie had to replace his broom twice during his years at Hogwarts. It would have been three times but he pulled up quick enough when his opponent tried to Wronski him." Fred stated.

Seeing that they had their little brother's attention George picked up where Fred left off, "Both times Charlie broke his broom he was given the option of quitting quidditch or working part time in Ottery in order to pay for part of the broom. Charlie chose the second option, that's why we didn't see him much the summer after his OWLs. He spent most of his time in the village working to pay for part of the broom he flew on his last two years of Hogwarts. The fact that Harry has two brooms, if Charlie is anything to go by, will serve him well given some of the dangerous situations he's found himself in since he's joined the team. Harry can come 'round to the Burrow whenever he wants to. He's as much, if not more, our friend then he is yours." George finished, thinking of how the Dementors affect Harry and thinking that he needed to talk to the rest of the team on how to help Harry deal with that.

After listening to what his brothers had to say, Ron was somewhat chagrined about how he behaved. He still thought that Harry should let him use the broom that he wasn't using though, how could one person use or need two brooms anyways. The twins turned away from Ron after he voiced this compromise, vowing that there was nothing short of Impreioing Ron to get him to act like a friend to Harry and not a jealous prat. Washing their hands of the whole situation, the twins went to find Harry to warn him to watch his back around Ron.

Coming down the stairs, after leaving Ron in their dorm, Fred and George noticed Harry sitting in one of the chairs by the fireplace staring into the flames with an unfocused look on his face. While they weren't pleased that so many of their predictions about their family had come true, they consoled themselves with the fact that Harry learned what Ron was really like early and would be able to disentangle himself with a minimum of difficulty. Seeing the twins coming down the stairs Harry addressed them.

"I guess the only time I'll see the two of you is here at Hogwarts. Pity, regardless of how true your predictions of your siblings, at least one of them seemed to be, I do like your house and the way I instantly felt like I belonged." Harry said, using a defense mechanism he hadn't used since he started at Hogwarts. The twin's assurance that he was always welcome at the burrow if they had anything to say about it, brought a smile to Harry's face. He was pleased that not all of the Weasley's hated him, like he feared.

Although, given that he'd only spent one summer, since re-entering the wizarding world, at the Burrow, it wasn't like he was distraught at not being welcome there, either. It was the loss of someone he thought of as a true friend, on top of Hermione's being so into her studies that she was virtually abandoning him. He would have felt like he was back at primary school if not for the friendship he'd made with the quidditch team. After thinking about it, Harry decided that with the quidditch team and Neville he had enough friends. While it did hurt being abandoned by Ron and Hermione, he'd get by just like he did when Dudley chased off anybody who wanted to be his friend in primary school.

**A/N 2****:** I realize parts of this rehashes some of what is said in the first chapter. My only response is that Fred and George didn't realize the seriousness of their mother's convictions/thought she hadn't gone so far. Upon having her convictions shown to them has left them feeling somewhat adrift. No matter what they were doing they do love their mother, were trying to stop her before she got this far.

**A/N 3****:** I understand that based on Molly's response in the fourth book, it seems like Bill grew out his long hair since the Weasleys had last seen before Harry's third year. Unless Bill used magical means to get it to the length that it was so quickly it had to be obvious what he was doing when the Weasleys went and visited him in Egypt.

**A/N 4****:** This will be the last chapter posted for a while, I have tried to at least have a chapter in reserve when ever I've posted a new chapter but the last few chapters have proven to be more difficult to write then the previous one. That being said I still plan to complete this story, just don't know if it will be uploaded as regularly as before.


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